After two and half hours debate, which was at times heated and passionate, the South Planning Committee decided that it is minded to refuse the application for a petrol station and supermarket at Rocks Green on the outskirts of Ludlow.
The committee wanted to refuse the application outright but legal advice was given that the decision must deferred until later in the year. This was because the committee had decided that there were flaws in the retail and highways impacts assessments.
Why object to having another petrol station and supermarket!
It’s dangerous at times going to the Co op filling station with the que on the road. A second filling station might just result in cheaper petrol for Ludlow.
How can the Co-op, alongside the A49, object on the grounds of the town centre losing trade? Are they not simply afraid of competition in the fuel market?
There is no objection to another petrol station, I believed one was going into the town but have heard no more about it.
The issue about the town centre is a proven one, nothing to do with competition, it is to do with facts.
In the vast majority of towns where out of town supermarkets / shopping malls etc have been developed – especial;ly in a town which has 3 and is so oversubscribed with them that the old Coop left due to under usage, trade will be moved from town and the existing supermarkets will have less patronage and people will start looking out of town more and more.
This will lead the natural progression to extending and having a strip mall and before you know it the town centre will shrink and Ludlow will become “just another town”.
Hope this gets knocked into the ether and may it never rise again….
A big out of town supermarket would ruin trade within Ludlow town. People would go there for cheap toilet paper etc and end up doing the whole shop there because it would be convenient, then no need to go into town anymore.
However it’s about time independent traders woke up to the idea of having better opening hours, anyone who has to work for a living stands no chance of shopping in town. The butchers are usually wiping down their counters by 3pm! Crazy, what about school run mums who might want to pop in when they pick up the kids? Most traders in Europe have a long lunch break and then reopen between about 2-7pm. If you go into Tesco in the evening it’s chock full of young working people. The town centre is serving tourists and pensioners.