With thanks for Simon Hoare of Community Connect, I am now able to post the outline plans for the proposed supermarket and petrol station. These are the plans that were on show at the exhibition at the Rockspring Centre earlier in the month.
Draft site plan for a supermarket and petrol station
These are early plans and may well be changed before being submitted to Shropshire Council for planning approval. The full material from the exhibition is in PDF files you can access from the links below:
Community Connect Ludlow Pop up banners
Community Connect Rocksgreen2 Masterplan
There is no doubt this supermarket is controversial. As a member of the South Planning Committee, I will not be taking a view on the proposals until they are presented to the committee. But, as always, I am keen to hear your views. Why not post them in the comments box below?
Once the building of the Eco park was approved to the east of the bypass it was obvious that more development would take place. Unfortunately, the Lib Dems were wholly in favour of the Ecopark and seemed unable, at the time, to see the dangers. First the housing at Rocks Green,then the proposed new hospital, and now the proposed supermarket, all contribute to the sprawl of Ludlow to the East, with the potential to spoil the countryside in that direction.
Ludlow does not need another supermarket. It is well served by a Co-operative, Tesco’s and Aldi, all of which are in town, drawing people in to spend their money at other stores. Once you’ve parked, the incentive is there to visit town. A supermarket on the outskirts entices people to, as the Presentation says proudly, do their food and petrol shopping at one store. This is not what is needed by market town which depends on food (shopping and eating) for its reputation and hence for many of its visitors. You only have to visit Leominster and Hereford to see what out of town supermarkets have done to the towns- there are many spaces in car parks that used to be full, shops have closed and the variety has become restricted.
Far from improving the traffic on the surrounding roads, the supermarket is likely to draw in traffic from outside the area, increasing congestion and pollution without benefiting the local economy. Supermarket profits do not benefit the local economy and the extra jobs promised would be more likely to be redistributed jobs, as businesses close and staff are made redundant, and, with the increasing automation of supermarkets, the majority would also be low paid, zero hours contract jobs, filling shelves.
As one of the major gateways to the town, the A4117 entry is visually important. We do not want it to be via just another retail park, reminiscent of every other town in the country. Ludlow is unique – let’s stay that way.
Judith Ellis
I agreed wholeheartedly with the above comment and am amazed that there has not been an outcry from businesses in the town. Visit almost any once attractive market town in this country and see the wreckage of town centres. People visit us because we are one of the few places left which feels active and ‘human’ in the centre.
Beware Simon Hoare, a professional political lobbyist, with connections to the highest echelons of the Conservative party, the public face of this project. He has no interest in Ludlow other than to make a fat commission from the scheme if he manages to push the planning permission through. If planning permission is refused he uses his contacts in central government to try and get the decision overturned. This, presumably, is his appeal to the people behind the scheme. Google his name plus “scandal” to find the many juicy lobbying scandals with which he’s been involved. Interestingly, in the flyer he distributed to Ludlow residents, we were invited to contact him either by email or phone, to discuss the project. I have tried both, and he neither answers the phone or his emails.