Woodwares closing / Sainsburys coming to Portobello

[lg1726]

I want an lg1726 dedicated check out in the bloody place when it opens!!!

[Puerto bella]

Good luck Lg. I have been involved with the BBC2 team on another case in Borders and they are v good, easy to work with and will put you at ease. Have no fears going into it. The programme seeks to provide a balanced view on planning.

[Mark Cameron]

lg1726 - really glad you're agreeing to do this. It's great to get as many different opinions out there about planning as possible - we've 'got your back'!

[lg1726]

[UKStationery]

Let’s not bicker about who said what, when and why, or use historical events as a baton to hit each other with, or even who has the right to speak on our behalf! What matters is the single question “Is the proposed development by Sainsbury in the best interests of Portobello and all of its people and those that pass through?”

I am very sorry that Portobello is to loose such a useful and well-loved shop as Woodwares. Where now to get advice and those hard to find items not stocked by B & Q?

I am a business owner (not products Sainsbury sell) and I’m surprised how little respect is being given to those that will be directly affected by the proposals. Let’s cut the bull and bluster and look at some of what Sainsbury are proposing and ask what we the people of Portobello want.

1: Sainsbury’s want to take down and deface one of the last listed frontages of the old Portobello High Street.
Yet many of the houses in Portobello are classified as category C(windows) and the council won’t allow these to be changed!

2: Sainsbury’s re-stock daily from a very large lorry.
How will that help our hard pressed traffic flow? With a lorry at the door and a line of traffic on the other side of the street or indeed just a bus at the stop, the road will be blocked to police, ambulance and fire engines!

3: Late hours, across the street from aged persons flats.

4: Another cash point.
Do we not have enough? I don’t see many folk having to wait at the existing.

5: Installation of cooling and air con. (With fans only feet from residential windows.)
Ok it’s within the law … but! There has been a noise study but what of the airborne infection possibilities?

6: Another source of alcohol. (Subject to licence being granted.)
Are we not already well serviced for drink?

7: Sainsbury Locals sell ready meals soft drinks and packages of sandwiches.
Will they try and attract the school lunch trade! Of course they will and cut the sales of the myriad of existing suppliers.

8:Sainsbury have a lottery machine in their stores.
Do we require another lottery outlet?

Portobello has strived and is seen to be a centre for shops where real food can be bought. Made on the premises or sourced locally. That’s not Sainsbury.

Ok the Co-op should buck up its ideas but do we want to see more empty shops on the high street caused by introducing a giant shark into a pool of locally grown minnows? Don’t be fooled this Sainsbury’s will not be great threat to the co-op as the floor area is not large enough to carry the range or size of packet bought in a local weekly shop. This could change if Sainsbury took over more shops in the Woodware parade! It will however immediately be a threat to all of the smaller food shops, be they specialist or not and all of the newsagents and general stores. Findlay's and Williamson's will suffer if, by chance, shoppers’ select a pre packed fish or meat from the Sainsbury chillier cabinet rather then walk the extra distance! The same applies to The Fine Wine Shop!

When it comes down to it, business is all about volume and margins. Sainsbury can carry a small margin. If there was a price war between The Co-op and Sainsbury’s then my 35 years of retail margin setting, tends to indicate that such competition of giant’s could wipe out Portobello as a vibrant shopping hub.

I think we will loose 7 or 8 establishments!
These shops would not close because they don’t give the service or their prices are ridiculously high but because the loss of market share will make them uneconomic! With its demographic and with access problems Portobello is of restricted market size with little possibility of expansion. Sainsbury will do much more damage than knockout the odd historic window or general store.

This is not a pop-up shop, Sainsbury will make it work!

Remember “Its business to them its Portobello to us.”

[little miss moffat]

To be honest, I don't shop much in Portobello mainly because there is not a decent selection of varied shops. I come down to Portobello High Street for the bank, sometimes buy fish, usually pop in to semichem, occasionally buy something from Greggs - then go to Asda for the rest of my shopping! I refuse point blank to shop in Scotmid. I personally feel there are too many charity shops and not enough selection of other shops. However....... now that Sainsbury is moving into the High Street, I will probably pop in there and give the trip to Asda a miss. I think a varied selection of shops is what is needed on the High street - to encourage people to come shop there, but...... it is no use if you can only pick up a few of your items on the High Street and then have to go elsewhere to get the rest of the shopping that you need. I think Sainsbury's alone will bring more shoppers to the High Street. But the more the variety of shops - the more shoppers will be encouraged to visit the area.

[seashell]

if not Sainsburys' - then what would people like to see instead?
I realise this is a purely hypothetical question, but it is unlikly that another hardward shop would open on the Wodwares site. So for those who, for whatever reason, are opposed to Sainsury's - what sort of shop would add to the appeal of the High Street *and* be profitable?
Personnally, I would love an independent fabric shop, along the lines of Purely Patchwork in Linlithgow - and there is certainly enough room to have a room for classes - but would there be enough custom? the current economic climate would probably mitigate against it.
An outdoor clothing shop would also be good.

[Roscoe1961]

FYI folks.
Woodwares aren't closing.
They are retaining a portion of the store (currently paint/decoration) and the Basement and will continue trading.

[Mark Cameron]

[seashell]

[lg1726]

[seanie]

[seanie]

Or at the very least be driven insane by inappropriate colours for a Conservation Area.

[cuth]

In 1894 there were 18 grocers on the High Street. Now we're panicking about half a dozen or so.

http://digital.nls.uk/directories/brows ... d=91169459

[Puerto bella]

Sainsbury's one minute - devil worship the next, its a slippery slope we're on. Am so glad we have the moral and spiritual guardians of Portobello who know what's best for me. lol

[Mark Cameron]

[Makaveli]

Ah mcdryburn but in those very same PCC minutes they also opposed 'ye olde ATM' on the grounds that Mrs Miggins cobblers already had one

[fresian]

Just realised why DC is objecting, Her acronym finder has come up with "PAMS"- Portobello Against Maroon Shopfronts. Interesting that there are a few maroon shopfronts up the other end of the street.

[gillian]

[Puerto bella]

I am beginning to feel like Portobello if left unchecked in the whats best on the conservation front is in danger of turning into somewhere like Rochester - where the locals like nothing more than making a mockery of its days of yore with its pastiche olde worlde shopfronts,festivals full of English people dressed up in old bridesmaid dresses and men in top hats and lots of romancing about way back when, back in the day and an old curiosity shop type of urban design. Yeuch.

[wangi]

[gillian]

[geofflynn]

[lg1726]

[fresian]

Seanie- Point 5, there is no risk of airborne infection from these type of aircon units. These are basically bigger versions of the type found in cars, refrigerators etc. The legionnaires risk comes about when you use condensor cooling tower.

[seanie]

A minor technicality.

THOUSANDS COULD DIE!!!!

[fresian]

They would be more at risk if they ate one of these pre packed Sausage rolls

[bearcub]

UKStationery, I thought you said you wanted to "cut the bull and bluster"?

Older people quivering in their homes because of the noise of folk leaving a shop at 11pm. The genteel people of Portobello shading their eyes from the hideous dark purple frontage when they were so used to Georgian bookies, cafes and charity shops that had never changed for hundreds of years. And of course let's not forget the airborne infections.

Bull and bluster!

You say what do the people of Portobello want, well, many of those people have expressed opinions in this thread. And Geoff has gone to the trouble of helping the PCC out by actually doing a survey. Or is that all bull and bluster too?

[magbagpuss]

Well said Bearcub , more mince on this thread than Sainsburys will ever have . A lot of selfish , self-centred people thinking only of themselves. Get a life. It's a shop not an invasion of body snatchers !

[SoupDragon]

magbagpuss you made me snort my mint tea

[lg1726]

[SoupDragon]

I was in Woodwares today and they said there are no plans to keep part of the store, the whole store is being leased to Sainsbury

[Snow White]

I wonder whether DC and co trundle down to Devon for their holidays?!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... offee.html

[lg1726]

I see the application for Sainsburys is on the CEC site and that now is the time to lodge supoort, or otherwise. If you want to make comment, there is a proforma as well

The last date for representation is 13 November, but I will be drafting my letter today/tomorrow. I had occasion to call the police twice last week regarding incidents in/around the Quarry Park. Once in connection with the use of an empty nearby property by young people drinking and once when I found a motorcycle abandoned in the play park, a novel new piece of play equipment I thought. Both times I picked up a load of 1/4 & 1/2 bottles of glens vodka and cheap cider and put them in the carrier bags, the blue and white striped ones. Now I know that the arrival of Sainsburys will not stop the kids getting the alcohol; no doubt their current traders will continue to sell to them whether Sainsburys are on the High Street or not, but I feel that it does help to send a message that responsible off sales traders are welcome!

I spoke to the community bobby who told me that they know the kids are being sold and/or passed on alcohol, but that they have no hard evidence to go on! There is no doubt that those opposed to the arrival of Sainburys on our High Street will be objecting on the basis of over provision, but there is a world of difference between the sheer numbers of those off sales and those who have and monitor stringent under age sale policies and in my opinion, better to have those who do take this position and support such establishments!

[geofflynn]

I've added a form to Ask ?orty so anyone can easily make a representation to the Licensing Dept regarding this matter.

Please go here -->