Town centres – a tale of two councils
Keith Parkins | 12.01.2007 15:01 | Analysis | Repression | Social Struggles
Two councils, one which worked in collusion with a developer to destroy a town centre for a superstore, the other that said no to Tesco, now has a thriving town centre with several small retailers, bucking the national trend of closures.
Farnborough town centre – empty streets, boarded-up shops
Eight years ago KPI (a Kuwaiti-financed St Modwen front company) bought Farnborough town centre. In collusion with the local council, the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor, they have systematically laid waste to the town centre. There is now little left, the streets are deserted, shops and flats boarded up, it looks like a ghost town.
KPI wish to demolish the norther half of the town centre for an unwanted superstore. It will face out of the town and kill off what little retail remains. Firgrove Court, social housing, a small estate of 28 maisonettes, is earmarked for demolition for the car park. Pavilion Housing Association that owns the estate, is letting it fall into disrepair to drive out the few remaining tenants.
The leader and chief executive of the council have regular meetings with KPI to help promote their agenda. Planning applications by KPI were simply rubber-stamped.
As one councillor who represents the town centre has said, the council has given KPI everything they have asked for.
The latest scandal is the sale of public land to KPI. This was sold at a knockdown price, the District Valuer had to step in. KPI had the council over a barrel with a gun to their head, either sell the land on the cheap, or we leave you with a derelict town centre.
The deal to sell the land has not yet been signed. KPI are looking for cast iron guarantees on future planning applications before they will sign.
At the end of last year, KPI said they were starting work in the New Year. There is no sign of any work. But then for the last five years they have been claiming to be starting in the spring, in the summer, in the New Year. At the beginning of last year, they were claiming the start would be in the spring, then it was the summer.
Eight years ago Saxmundham said no to Tesco.
Saxmundham in Suffolk is the town that said no to Tesco. Tesco wished to build a superstore on the edge of town. The local council, Suffolk Coastal listened to local people and said no to Tesco.
A food web has been created in Suffolk, at the centre of which is the small market town of Saxmundham, the town that said no to Tesco. The result has been a renaissance in small retailers – butchers, bakers, greengrocer, fishmonger, farmers markets and farm shops have also flourished – thus bucking the national trend of widespread closure. Saxmundham has now become a Mecca for food lovers.
Small producers need small businesses as their outlets.
Farmer's wife Margaret Holland, cake and pie maker from Gelham, uses local meat, game, eggs, vegetables and fruit in her pies and cakes. She sells her produce in the local butchers from where she obtains her sausage meat and in the farm shops from where she buys her fruit and vegetables. She says her business would not have got off the ground without the independent shops in Saxmundham. She now employs 20 people, of which only one comes to work by car.
Cherries, a small fruit and veg shop in the town's marketplace, buys asparagus from a local farm three minutes up the road, where it is freshly picked every morning. It goes from ground to shop in half an hour.
A network of small producers and retailers, generates local employment, recycles money within the local economy.
At Upton Park in East London, St Modwen is known as the Developer from Hell. In collusion with the local mayor, they are wishing to destroy the very popular Queen's Market and replace it with an unwanted superstore. The superstore was rumoured to be Asda. The bad publicity Asda were receiving being linked with St Modwen, forced Asda to pull out.
Web
http://www.thetruthinrushmoor.co.uk/
http://www.heureka.clara.net/surrey-hants/
http://www.tescopoly.org/
http://www.cpre.org.uk/
http://www.neweconomics.org/
http://www.friendsofqueensmarket.org.uk/
http://www.pluggingtheleaks.org/
reference
Patrick Barkham, The town that said no to Tesco, The Guardian, 28 June 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1807390,00.html
Lester R Brown, Plan B 2.0, Norton, 2006
Caroline Cranbrook, The Real Choice: How Local Foods can Survive the Supermarket Onslaught, CPRE, June 2006
Ben Farmer, Grocers flourish in town that saw off Tesco, Daily Mail, 26 June 2006
Keith Parkins, Queens Market, Indymedia UK, 11 April 2005
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/04/308927.html
Keith Parkins, Tragedy of Firgrove Court, Indymedia UK, 30 January 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/01/332594.html
Keith Parkins, Public Inquiry into road closures in Farnborough town centre, Indymedia UK, 30 January 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/01/332595.html
Keith Parkins, Curitiba – Designing a sustainable city, April 2006
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/curitiba.htm
Keith Parkins, Tesco post record profits, Indymedia UK, 2 May 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/05/339526.html
Keith Parkins, Tesco - Every little hurts, Indymedia UK, 18 August 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/348652.html?c=on
Keith Parkins, Big business to decide future of town centre, Indymedia UK, 30 October 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/10/354742.html
Keith Parkins, Empty property in Farnborough town centre, Indymedia UK, 27 November 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/11/357115.html?c=on
Keith Parkins, The Truth in Rushmoor, Indymedia UK, 30 November 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/11/357418.html
Keith Parkins, Failing councils are creating gravy trains for consultants, Indymedia UK, 12 December 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/12/358589.html
Keith Parkins, Dodgy land deals in Farnborough town centre?, Indymedia UK, 12 December 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/12/358511.html
Keith Parkins, Recycling – a tale of two councils, Indymedia UK, 5 January 2007
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/359341.html?c=on
Keith Parkins, Bad Food Britain, to be published
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/
People's Market or Supermarket, The Land, Summer 2006
Peter Marshall, Queen's Market - Women's March, Indymedia UK, 30 October 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/10/354701.html
No superstores 'means prosperity', BBC News on-line, 26 June 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5115990.stm
Pauline Rowe, Saving Queens Market from the developers, Indymedia UK, 17 October 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/10/353780.html
Guy Rubin, Nina Jatana and Ruth Potts, The world on a plate: Queens Market, New Economics Foundation, 2006
http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/z_sys_publicationdetail.aspx?pid=222
Andrew Simms et al, Ghost Town Britain, New Economics Foundation, 2002
Andrew Simms et al, Ghost Town Britain II: Death on the high street, New Economics Foundation, 2003
St Modwen: By Appointment to the Town Cloning Department, The Land, Summer 2006
KPI wish to demolish the norther half of the town centre for an unwanted superstore. It will face out of the town and kill off what little retail remains. Firgrove Court, social housing, a small estate of 28 maisonettes, is earmarked for demolition for the car park. Pavilion Housing Association that owns the estate, is letting it fall into disrepair to drive out the few remaining tenants.
The leader and chief executive of the council have regular meetings with KPI to help promote their agenda. Planning applications by KPI were simply rubber-stamped.
As one councillor who represents the town centre has said, the council has given KPI everything they have asked for.
The latest scandal is the sale of public land to KPI. This was sold at a knockdown price, the District Valuer had to step in. KPI had the council over a barrel with a gun to their head, either sell the land on the cheap, or we leave you with a derelict town centre.
The deal to sell the land has not yet been signed. KPI are looking for cast iron guarantees on future planning applications before they will sign.
At the end of last year, KPI said they were starting work in the New Year. There is no sign of any work. But then for the last five years they have been claiming to be starting in the spring, in the summer, in the New Year. At the beginning of last year, they were claiming the start would be in the spring, then it was the summer.
Eight years ago Saxmundham said no to Tesco.
Saxmundham in Suffolk is the town that said no to Tesco. Tesco wished to build a superstore on the edge of town. The local council, Suffolk Coastal listened to local people and said no to Tesco.
A food web has been created in Suffolk, at the centre of which is the small market town of Saxmundham, the town that said no to Tesco. The result has been a renaissance in small retailers – butchers, bakers, greengrocer, fishmonger, farmers markets and farm shops have also flourished – thus bucking the national trend of widespread closure. Saxmundham has now become a Mecca for food lovers.
Small producers need small businesses as their outlets.
Farmer's wife Margaret Holland, cake and pie maker from Gelham, uses local meat, game, eggs, vegetables and fruit in her pies and cakes. She sells her produce in the local butchers from where she obtains her sausage meat and in the farm shops from where she buys her fruit and vegetables. She says her business would not have got off the ground without the independent shops in Saxmundham. She now employs 20 people, of which only one comes to work by car.
Cherries, a small fruit and veg shop in the town's marketplace, buys asparagus from a local farm three minutes up the road, where it is freshly picked every morning. It goes from ground to shop in half an hour.
A network of small producers and retailers, generates local employment, recycles money within the local economy.
At Upton Park in East London, St Modwen is known as the Developer from Hell. In collusion with the local mayor, they are wishing to destroy the very popular Queen's Market and replace it with an unwanted superstore. The superstore was rumoured to be Asda. The bad publicity Asda were receiving being linked with St Modwen, forced Asda to pull out.
Web
http://www.thetruthinrushmoor.co.uk/ http://www.heureka.clara.net/surrey-hants/ http://www.tescopoly.org/ http://www.cpre.org.uk/ http://www.neweconomics.org/ http://www.friendsofqueensmarket.org.uk/ http://www.pluggingtheleaks.org/ reference
Patrick Barkham, The town that said no to Tesco, The Guardian, 28 June 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1807390,00.html Lester R Brown, Plan B 2.0, Norton, 2006
Caroline Cranbrook, The Real Choice: How Local Foods can Survive the Supermarket Onslaught, CPRE, June 2006
Ben Farmer, Grocers flourish in town that saw off Tesco, Daily Mail, 26 June 2006
Keith Parkins, Queens Market, Indymedia UK, 11 April 2005
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/04/308927.html Keith Parkins, Tragedy of Firgrove Court, Indymedia UK, 30 January 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/01/332594.html Keith Parkins, Public Inquiry into road closures in Farnborough town centre, Indymedia UK, 30 January 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/01/332595.html Keith Parkins, Curitiba – Designing a sustainable city, April 2006
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/curitiba.htm Keith Parkins, Tesco post record profits, Indymedia UK, 2 May 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/05/339526.html Keith Parkins, Tesco - Every little hurts, Indymedia UK, 18 August 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/348652.html?c=on Keith Parkins, Big business to decide future of town centre, Indymedia UK, 30 October 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/10/354742.html Keith Parkins, Empty property in Farnborough town centre, Indymedia UK, 27 November 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/11/357115.html?c=on Keith Parkins, The Truth in Rushmoor, Indymedia UK, 30 November 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/11/357418.html Keith Parkins, Failing councils are creating gravy trains for consultants, Indymedia UK, 12 December 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/12/358589.html Keith Parkins, Dodgy land deals in Farnborough town centre?, Indymedia UK, 12 December 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/12/358511.html Keith Parkins, Recycling – a tale of two councils, Indymedia UK, 5 January 2007
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/359341.html?c=on Keith Parkins, Bad Food Britain, to be published
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/ People's Market or Supermarket, The Land, Summer 2006
Peter Marshall, Queen's Market - Women's March, Indymedia UK, 30 October 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/10/354701.html No superstores 'means prosperity', BBC News on-line, 26 June 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5115990.stm Pauline Rowe, Saving Queens Market from the developers, Indymedia UK, 17 October 2006
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/10/353780.html Guy Rubin, Nina Jatana and Ruth Potts, The world on a plate: Queens Market, New Economics Foundation, 2006
http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/z_sys_publicationdetail.aspx?pid=222 Andrew Simms et al, Ghost Town Britain, New Economics Foundation, 2002
Andrew Simms et al, Ghost Town Britain II: Death on the high street, New Economics Foundation, 2003
St Modwen: By Appointment to the Town Cloning Department, The Land, Summer 2006
Keith Parkins
Additions
schhh .... mustn't tell the public
12.01.2007 17:34
At a recent meeting for local businesses, those that at least can be relied upon not to ask difficult questions or otherwise rock the boat, the rest are not invited, Simon Rutter, the man at KPI responsible for destroying Farnborough town centre, told the gathered sychophants that the town centre redevelopment would not now take place until March, due to the fact that papework had not been signed, but he would not like to go public with this information!
We wonder why?
We wonder why?
Keith