‘We don’t want a superstore at Malmesbury’ (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

‘We don’t want a superstore at Malmesbury’

3:00pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Malmesbury By Victoria Ashford

Malmesbury Town Council has said a resounding ‘no’ in the face of Sainsbury’s application for a 50,000 square foot store on the outskirts of the town.

Hundreds were at a meeting, which was held twice on Tuesday evening to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend, at the town hall to discuss whether the council should recommend approval or refusal for the superstore on the site of the garden centre.

While there are many who are in favour of a supermarket for the town many campaigners have spoken of their concerns about the future of the High Street, the survival of local convenience stores and an expected increase in traffic.

Bruno Moore, a Sainsbury’s spokesman, said that the store would be the right size for Malmesbury, but admitted it had created a lot of unrest locally.

“We know from our consultation that there’s a lot of concern about the High Street and that’s something we have to assess,” he said.

“It’s an absolute gem of a town centre and we would really like to support that.

“There’s a whole raft of measures for us to be able to do that.”

Coun John Gundry, who spoke on the retail assessment, said: “They say it will only have a five per cent impact on the town’s trade but this development is going to dwarf Malmesbury.

“It’s already going to be 110 per cent of all the retail floor space of Malmesbury town centre.

“People come to Malmesbury, it’s a nice place, you see people and pop in for a coffee; I put it to you as to whether that sense of compassion and community is going to exist within Sainsbury’s aisles?”

Speaking from the public gallery, Robert McLachan said: “I believe that Malmesbury needs a supermarket but it has to be the right supermarket, in the right size, and in the right place.

“Sainsbury’s would destroy our High Street and Waitrose (which has submitted a planning application on an alternative site for a smaller food store) would be the making of it.”

Kate Robinson, of Park Road, said: “No one actually knows whether the Co-Op could withstand the impact from Sainsbury’s.

“If they can’t we would be without any convenience food stores in the town.”

Paul Mason described his experience of living in a small town in Virginia, America, which had become a ‘boarded-up wasteland’ after a large WalMart store was built.

“He said: “It became the most soul destroying, depressing place and I would hate that to happen in our town.”

Paul Baker, the chairman of the town’s Chamber of Commerce said that the supermarket would “decimate” the high street.

“It’s the heart of the town. We can’t take the risk of having the supermarket come in.”