"Good news", the lose of 238 parking spaces & a new developement where all roads in Chippenham meet, yeah right, another bl**dy c*ck up in the making more like. Just remember to get from one side of town to the other this is the main route, so any building will need the infastructure re-thinking first.

Well said John. This is 'good news', not for the town but for the few individuals that will benefit financially from this. I agree that the Bridge centre needs ripping down, ideally to be replaced with a proper roundabout, instead of the waste of space traffic lights that cause more congestion than they solve. However, to trash a car park as well is yet another nail in the towns coffin. Listen, those at the council that don't want to hear, we don't want a supermarket in the town centre, we didn't want a supermarket at Langley park and, surprise, surpise, we don't want one in the bath road car park. We spoke out on Langley park and we'll speak out again. If you want to build something and you really want our town to be something more than phone and charity shop island then build a multi-story car park instead.

Where is everybody going to park? What about all of the extra traffic that would be going around the only link through Chippenham? It will be good to have another big shop or shopping centre in Chippenham, but they need to do it properly. Why don’t they do what they have done in Cheltenham, and put a car park on the roof of the new development? Or under it. They would also need to finish off the bypass up to Pewsham to ease the amount of traffic that runs around the bridge centre round-a-bout. Chippenham needs shops but it also needs to listen to it residents. PS what the hell do we want a Waitrose for?

stop flapping everyone. Yet again the whingers and winers of Chippenham come out, i'm sorry to say that in this case you are wrong. People whinge on this site all the time about how poor chippenham town centre is and how it's full of mobile phone shops and charity shops - this is very true. But this redevelopment offers the opportunity for some decent size shops in the town centre. Very rarely does a decent size shop become available in chippenham and therefore we miss out on attracting the kind of shops that will bring people back into the town centre. Yes it may be painful while redevelopment takes place but the results will be worth it and rest assured a car park either on top of the development or underground will happen as part of it as previously indicated. For once everyone please realise something half decent could happen in chippenham and support it rather than whinge and moan!

Brilliant news, let's hope it's a decent shop like Waitrose.

PS what the hell do we want a Waitrose for?

ermm. . . quality food?

Waitrose would be a brilliant asset to Chippenham as there is no decent shops in the town and with this hopefully other quaility shops will follow. And Im prety sure that they would provide a car park

Why would mc from Bath want a Waitrose in Chippenham, you got one in Bath.....errrr!!!!!
And clarence81 wants it too! Your all supermarket mad.

mrp,mc bath & all those wanting a new developement, great so would I as I can't stand gong into town at present as there's nothing there to get my juices flowing. What I'm cheesed off about is where these developers keep on trying to build, have you seen the size of the area & the fact that it's the main junction for access to either side of the town & they want a supermarket there, it'll be gridlock and you'll soon be complaining when you're stuck because the car parks full & there's a queue tailing back. like you get at emerygate and you can't get across town. They need to think first before they go selling off land to these people & put assurances in that the infastucture is sorted first.

The column inches, speculation and spin is as usual unbelievable. How many times has it been reported that M&S, Waitrose or some other high profile retailer is coming to dear old Chippenham. Only to change their minds when they find out it’s not actually in Cambridge.

If they are coming, they must be being carried on the backs of geriatric snails.

Still it’s good to know that even if the wheels of politics turn incredibly slowly in Chippenham. The traders’, sorry councillors have finally made their minds up. But how long has this been talked of, Nestles closed in 1966 and the site levelled some years later.
But only Chippenham, innocent and ever so slightly hesitant, could put one of its major land assets up for sale at the start of a recession. Still I’m sure NCP car parks will put in a good bid; at least they can see the opportunity for a steady profit

I don't know why you're barking on about it being a traffic bottleneck - i'm sure they've thought about that, and have a good solution. Quit whining. Oh, and i'm posting from 'Nam today ;-)

I think we have to face up to a few points here. If a supermarket (which one is irrelevant) is built on this site then sure people will come and shop there. They won't go into town, they'll just jump back in the car and go home. The supermarket will make sure their car park is not cluttered with cars of people milling about in town. Once the town centre was the source of the products needed to live your life. No longer, the supermarkets out of town look after that now. You can drive your car to the door and load it with cheap produce then ship it straight back home. So easy and it doesn't matter where it is built. The only reason people would want to go into town, other than to get the odd thing from Wilkos, is because they want to. To encourage that it needs to be easy to get there, easy to park and offer an enjoyable reason to go. To be perfectly honest I don't believe Chippenham offers any of these qualities, which is a shame because I believe it could and can. It has to re-invent its roll in the community, have the right management plan and, of course, the money. The problem here is there is too many people focusing on the money, more to the point, how much they can make, than producing a community centre that we could be proud of. This lack of attraction and the sky high rents push shops out of town and do not encourage new ones to come in. This is what needs addressing and no suppermarket is going to do that. Regarding MCs comment that the traffic bottleneck has been thought about then I seriously doubt it has. Chippenham has a traffic problem right now. To rip out half the bridge centre roundabout is only going to make this worse. The solution starts with connecting Avenue La Fletch to the A4 by the hospital and I seriously doubt there is any intention to pay for that. There is no quick, easy and single solution here and I'm not holding my breath either. Who knows, maybe the new super council will sort it out, prehaps not.

mrp wrote:
stop flapping everyone. Yet again the whingers and winers of Chippenham come out, i'm sorry to say that in this case you are wrong. People whinge on this site all the time about how poor chippenham town centre is and how it's full of mobile phone shops and charity shops - this is very true. But this redevelopment offers the opportunity for some decent size shops in the town centre. Very rarely does a decent size shop become available in chippenham and therefore we miss out on attracting the kind of shops that will bring people back into the town centre. Yes it may be painful while redevelopment takes place but the results will be worth it and rest assured a car park either on top of the development or underground will happen as part of it as previously indicated. For once everyone please realise something half decent could happen in chippenham and support it rather than whinge and moan!

You must be a councillor that is making money out of this.

lordbuckethead wrote:

PS what the hell do we want a Waitrose for?

ermm. . . quality food?

ermm... Isn't Waitrose another supermarket, just like ASDA, that nobody wanted? It is just the same but charges more. If it was an ASDA I wouldn't mind.

Totally agree with the two readers who have commented on level of traffic passing around the Bridge Centre, and the need for a By-pass, before any development work can take place. Would it not be better to take the traffic completely away from the town, by connecting the A4 round Pewsham to the A350 at the Lackham College roundabout.... But there again who would fund that level of investment.

ermm... Isn't Waitrose another supermarket, just like ASDA, that nobody wanted? It is just the same but charges more

No they are not the same!

Asda is a very large out of town low quality, low price retailer.

Waitrose is small/medium, town centre, higher quality (and yes price) retailer.

Can you spot the differences?

If there was a high quality retailer in the centre of chippenham (yes - waitrose or M&S) I, for one, would walk into town and shop there.

I work in Swindon near an Asda - and the only reason I ever go there is to fill up the car. Their petrol is cheap - and thats about it.

No THATS the difference. (to me)

They can't build between the hospital and pewsham way for 2 reasons, one it floods, and secondly there's a feul pipe line under it. So they'd have to go the other side of town up by monkton park and that won't happen as it mean they won't be europes biggest cul de sac.

Waitrose is far too unmarket for Chippenham - people who can afford to shop in Waitrose probably don't come into Chippenham to shop anyway and would probably frequent places like Bath as a rule. Let's have some decent shops for a change. The council will surely realise that they cannot take away a car park the size of the Bath Road one just like that and parking will have to be provided. They need to get a road across from London Road and out across Monkton Park and likewise from Rowden over to Pewsham - you just have too many major roads coming into the town centre, with no alternative route around.

lordbuckethead wrote:

ermm... Isn't Waitrose another supermarket, just like ASDA, that nobody wanted? It is just the same but charges more

No they are not the same! Asda is a very large out of town low quality, low price retailer. Waitrose is small/medium, town centre, higher quality (and yes price) retailer. Can you spot the differences? If there was a high quality retailer in the centre of chippenham (yes - waitrose or M&S) I, for one, would walk into town and shop there. I work in Swindon near an Asda - and the only reason I ever go there is to fill up the car. Their petrol is cheap - and thats about it. No THATS the difference. (to me)

Well you said it all you use asda !!!!!!

quote

Waitrose would be a brilliant asset to Chippenham as there is no decent shops in the town and with this hopefully other quaility shops will follow

You'll probably use Marlborough as your model for that statement, but recently there was an article about the traders in that town, who wanted a LOW COST supermarket in town as the Waitrose didn't bring customers in. People want to pay high prices for A) Cars B) Clothes. And low prices for A) Food B) Fuel
Sounds like an ASDA or Tesco to me.