Kirkland is a scheme to prevent ASDA. The scheme in itself is enough - it doesn't have to be realised, not in the short - term anyway. Which could easily be five years.
I think that was the case when the Chadwick Street scheme first came along - it was self-evidently a spoiling tactic by our wonderful councillors, designed simply to stop the Hibbert Lane scheme.
However, we have now moved on. The Council's own independent Consultants, Hollissvincent, have now advised them that 'there is a qualitative need for at least one medium sized foodstore, in Marple,' ( see
http://democracy.stockport.gov.uk/documents/s25234/FINAL%20Marple%20Foodstores%20Report%20-%2022%2001.pdf) This conclusion is based on the out-of-Marple shopping data which I copied and pasted in an earlier post on this thread - here it is again:
the Sainsbury's store in Hazel Grove (£6.8m);
the out-of-centre Morrisons at Bredbury (£5.5m);
the Tesco store at Whaley Bridge (£5.2m);
the Tesco store at Wren Nest Road in Glossop (£2.6m);
the out-of-centre Tesco store at Tivot Way (£2.4m);
the ASDA store in Stockport (£1.7m);
the ASDA store in Hyde (£1.6m); and
the Sainsbury's store in Stockport (£1.1m).
That adds up to nearly £27 million which we spend every year at these supermarkets. Compare that with the *'convenience goods' turnover of the two existing Marple supermarkets and the local shops, which is put at £21.8 million.
Having commissioned this independent report, and presumably accepted its findings, the council can now reasonably be expected to take whatever steps are necessary to act upon it - i.e. to ensure that the said 'medium sized foodstore' is actually built. Otherwise the council, which is now officially aware of the unnecessary traffic congestion and environmental damage being caused by the lack of a proper supermarket in Marple, could in the end be under some pressure from voters and from government to explain why they have not done anything about it.
So they need to approve one of these applications, but the real prospect now is that the one which would undoubtedly happen, if approved, is likely to be rejected in favour of a highly speculative scheme which could very well never happen. So in a few years time, we could find that the council will have failed to do anything about the need for a new supermarket in Marple despite having been told that they ought to. And that could become quite an embarrassment, I guess.
