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No Mill Road Sainsburys Petition Handed In Tonight.

Cameraboy | 27.07.2011 18:40 | Social Struggles | Cambridge

This evening a small group of concerned local people gathered in front of Cambridge Guildhall to hand over a petition against the proposed Sainsburys store on Mill Road.

Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert was in attendance.
Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert was in attendance.

Short and to the point.
Short and to the point.

Outside the Guildhall, with petition.
Outside the Guildhall, with petition.


This is the culmination of a campaign that has been running for several weeks by local group No Mill Road Tescos, who are against Sainsburys opening a new store inside the building that is currently occupied by entertainment venue Micky Flynn's.

Cambridge Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert was also in attendance, following on from his own questions last week in The Commons on this very issue, in which he proposed the idea of new legislation that would give local residents the final say in such types of planning issues, where certain types of businesses could be proved as having a negative impact on the local area.

So far on Mill Road, the more contentious chains that have colonised this street are:

Pizza Hut
Subway
Costa Coffee
Tescos

There are genuine fears in the Mill Road area that this creeping corporatisation of a street that is reknowned for its diversity of local and family businesses could actually kill off many of the more established, smaller businessess.

In fact, one shop manager, owner of Al Alamien store (someone please provide correct spelling if wrong) is so passionate about this issue he is currently standing for the Vice Chancellor's job for Cambridge University, to ensure maximum publicity for the issue!

We shall see if our local planners have the mettle to stand up to one of the big chains, or will they (as happened with Mill Road Tescos), just roll over once again and let them in?

Do they have any moral fibre or not?

We shall find out enough.

Cameraboy