There was a meeting held last night to discuss the proposed development of the old brewery site which drew an attendance of about 50 people. The majority of those who came to the meeting were residents who lived close to the site, although there were others from outlying villages who were concerned at the proposed plans. The meeting was organised on the back of a questionnaire that was posted to almost 300 residents who lived in the vicinity. It was initiated by the two Labour councillors for town ward, myself and Judith Pickthall and assisted by Colin Pickthall, who chaired the meeting. The outcome of the questionnaire told us that people were 4 to 1 against the idea of building a supermarket on the site, so we called a meeting allow people to further air their views. We had a very lively meeting which also drew reporters from the Evening mail and Radio Cumbria.
Many people spoke passionately of how this kind of development would ruin the character of our town, and how it could devastate the small shops and individual traders. There was also well founded worries about the increase in traffic, especially heavy goods vehicles delivering at inappropriate times and on roads ill designed for this purpose.
It was agreed though that we would have to fight the proposal on planning grounds, and not on emotional grounds, that is, for instance, it will spoil the nature of our town.
We also learned that it will not be Sainsburys' who move onto the old brewery, as they have their eye on a development on the outskirts of town, on land adjacent to the old bee hive public house. This is another story, and another battle that Ulverstonians will have to confront. But that was much less pressing than the plans proposed, and now submitted, for their Brewery St. site. This plan will come before the planners in October and so if there were to be opposition to the plans action had to begin right away.
So the call went out at our meeting for a small committee to be formed to get a plan of action going right away. Amazingly we had some quite formidable talents in the room who sounded to me just the sort of heads we needed to put up some very strong opposition to Robinsons. Six people agreed to meet again next week as the core group to put into place a plan of action.
One headline grabbing idea that came up was that we ask the public to boycott Robinsons ales as a protest against this development, which in itself was small beer, but may attract publicity, which is always handy in a campaign.
I think we all felt that with the need for housing in such short supply that the site could be better used for a mixed development of residential and small workshops perhaps. One sticking point here though is that Robinsons will only lease the land which is why their proposal would seem to only suit a supermarket of some sort or another. This may or may not be true, I don't know. In fact there's a lot we don't know, but what I do know is that Robinsons have got a fight on their hands.
We need to convince the powers that be, that is the SLDC councillors, and planners that there is a better use for this site than the one that is proposed at present.
I know that there will be mixed feelings, and arguments on both sides regarding this development, but if last nights meeting was anything to go by Robinsons won't have an easy ride. Whether they win or loose is now in the balance.
Look out for a website, a facebook page, Twitter posts, and a vigorous media campaign , this could run and run.
What's your opinion.
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