Promoters of the supermarket proposal originally said the new supermarket would create 250 jobs. That’s now been revised to 210 jobs, two-thirds of which will be part time. This is of course an estimate. Even more of an estimate is the calculation that around 78 part and full time jobs will be lost in the Ludlow area if the store opens.
In green, new jobs (part and full time). For every replacement job
created in the store (red), a job is lost in town.
The details
The proposed supermarket will create around 210 part and full time jobs (140 FTE). But with the store set to take a quarter of everyday trade from the town centre area, around 78 local jobs (47 FTE) will go as the in-town supermarkets cut back and independent traders struggle or close.
The analysis of new jobs and the loss of existing jobs has been conducted by Indigo Planning for the developer, Blackfriars. The techniques it uses are pretty standard but are not localised. Indigo is using the same method of estimating retail job numbers as would be used in any town in Britain. It makes no adjustment for the unique character of Ludlow’s shopping centre. Which retail chain occupies the Rocks Green store will also make a difference. A discount store such as Lidl or Netto would hit Aldi hard. Waitrose might take trade from butchers, bakers and the local food markets. If the developers have a retailer in mind, they are not letting on.
Indigo Planning says the new store and petrol station will create 210 jobs. It estimates that 140 of the jobs will be part time and 70 full time, giving 140 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs.[1]
Not all jobs will be new. Based on Indigo’s estimates, around 153 jobs will be additional jobs (93 FTE). That means that 78 jobs (47 FTE) will be lost from other businesses in Ludlow if the store gains planning permission.
The estimate of new jobs incorporates a 30% multiplier to take account of jobs created for cleaners, maintenance, training and supply of goods from the local area. I am not convinced by this multiplier. Cleaners will be local, but maintenance and training are usually corporate functions with staff coming from outside the area. Many retail chains do not source goods locally. And Indigo doesn’t seem to have taken account of the loss of supply chain jobs if, for example, a butcher or greengrocer closes in central Ludlow. This might mean that the loss of local jobs will be higher than Indigo is estimating.
[1]. Planning and Retail Statement , 9.40-9.60.
So how can you say jobs will be taken from elsewhere in town in my job which entails getting people back to work I could support at least 21 to apply who are currently unemployed where are you getting your figures from?
Well that makes a lot of sense…
The data is the developers and it refers to jobs not people. They say opening the supermarket will lead to loss of trade and jobs in the town centre.
I’ve been saying all along that the “creating jobs” malarkey the developers come up with to support their speculative proposal is something we should raise an eyebrow to. Jobs lost in existing shops and supermarkets on the one hand, part-time / zero-hour contract jobs at the new supermarket, low-wage, insecure (many supermarket jobs are being and will be automated), little prospects of gaining valuable skills or attaining promotion, etc etc… the new jobs: it’s a red herring.
No – one is mentioning the traders who will really feel the draught if this goes forward. I mean the little shops and cafes in Ludlow that depend mainly on passing trade and impulse buying. Anything that empties the town will empty their shops and their tills.
Eventually they will be visited only by the odd tourist, thus becoming dependent on weather and time of year for their trade.
These are the businesses left out of the calculations – which, by the way, sound to me rather like the ones probably made to justify a big new hospital hereabouts, before hard reality showed up just in time to save the waste of money.
so this is what permission to develop an ‘eco park’ on the other side of the A49 actually meant – a gold rush for developers who have nil interest in the wellbeing of Ludlow. Anyone who still considers supermarkets are worth supporting needs to take a look at the recent TV programme on the subject of Tesco’s trading practices – not only will our in town traders lose out our local suppliers will find that they either cut their income to the bone or they go out of business.
Tesco Doncaster which is one of the fourty three stores being axed by the out of town giant with the loss of 180 jobs. This was a superstore format of over 35,000sqft.
Doncaster is a town with a population of 128,000. Ludlow is a town of 11,000. So for the developer to claim it will create over 200 jobs see totally spurious.
The great tragedy in these debates is that the officers who work for Shropshire residents don’t have the remit to question these rose tinted claims. Then this is compounded by the lack of critical acumen held by the local press and finally sealed by local reprasentatives who often lack the experience to make complex decisions that impact their communities.