Dear Spurtle
In Issue 197 you once again reflect what I suspect is the common feeling about the encroachment of supermarkets on our environment ('SURVEY SHOWS SUPERMARKETS SQUASH RETAIL DIVERSITY').
Most councillors, MPs and MSPs are only too willing to provide a sound bite voicing their opposition. Easy to say, hard to do.
Yet imagine a Broughton of the future with a wider road for more traffic. A bigger Tesco's in case you want – I don't know – juniper berries! A Kentucky Fried Chicken in case you are hungry (plus a Pizza Express for 'choice'). A Wetherspoon's in case you are thirsty. An expanded Clinton's in case you need to buy a birthday card (the token small shop!). And a drive-in supermarket outlet for those last-minute items. Except most of us, however much money it saves, would not want to live there. But that is what most American small towns look like already, and it could be the Broughton of the future. A 'drive-through' suburb – because no-one wants to stop there. No-one wants to live there, to take care of the place, to expend any time, love or life-hours. The place in which we find ourselves becomes a mere means to an end.
Diversity is replaced by efficiency. But efficiency should include quality of life – as rated by people who live here. In that sense, our small shops, with owners we get to know by name, our boutiques, our grocers, our flower shop, our gallery, the well-designed bars and coffee-shops that represent the sweat and tears of real people in this area – these are things that we come to love and which provide efficiency in quality of life. People we can all identify with and who enrich our lives.
So why are city councils (and parliaments) so lily-livered in dealing with this corporatisation of the world we try to live in? How about money? One reason is that Tesco's have the money, not to mention the solicitors and the time and manpower to force through their wishes. If planning permission is refused, they'll appeal. It costs. If residents object, they will run a PR campaign.
Saying 'We must do something about Tesco's' is like saying, 'We must do something about the weather'. Unless people in power start getting more creative about incorporating values held dear by most ordinary men and women, Tesco's will win again, and again. Supermarkets:
- erode local choice.
- siphon money away from local communities
- increase traffic and congestion
- destroy local jobs
- generate waste, and over-package
- exploit suppliers and damage the environment.
Ref: www.tescopoly.org.uk
Regards
Chris Docker
(Hart Street)