and vigorously oppose the building of a huge new superstore at
Ashton Gate. I see this proposal as an enormous threat to the lively,
supportive and increasingly sustainable communities of Ashton,
Southville and Bedminster.
I am not opposed to the BCFC's aspirations to build a better
stadium but believe that this should be on a brownfield site rather
than on Green Belt land and that it is more important that the people
of our area should maintain their current good access to the open
green space and waterways which help to make Bristol such an
agreeable place to live and work.If BCFC is to relocate it would be
much better to redevelop the Ashton Gate site for mixed use - housing
including some affordable housing and perhaps some retail or office/
light industrial use.
The proposed Sainsbury store will be double the size of the existing
Sainsbury's at Winterstoke Road and will be seen as a "destination"
attracting people to drive to the store from many miles around. The
volume of new traffic generated will cause serious congestion on
Winterstoke Road, which is already choked to a standstill at busy
times, and inevitably drivers will develop "rat runs" to the store
through our area. The combined traffic on match days, if the new
stadium is built at Ashton Vale, with the new superstore at busy
shopping times will be colossal bringing noise, air pollution and
probably "road rage" to disrupt the lives of local people. These
effects will deter many of those who walk or cycle in the area now
and so add even more to the number of car journeys. The City Council
should be encouraging many small shops which people can reach easily
rather than huge stores which are only accessed by car.
It is well documented that new superstores lead to the closure of
nearby small independant shops. These cannot compete with the "loss
leaders" of big stores and do not have the bargaining power or the
ruthlessness to drive down the prices of their suppliers. Small
businesses operate by a system of trust with both their customers and
suppliers and the money they make tends to remain much longer in the
local economy than that of supermarkets.A large superstore at Ashton
Gate will almost certainly lead to loss of small shops in a spiral of
empty shops and an increasingly derelict local shopping scene.Many of
he jobs generated by setting up a large new store will be temporary
and even jobs such as checking out and restocking are rapidly being
automated so we stand to lose overall employment eventually by
replacing local shops with a superstore. Is this what we want in our
excellent shopping streets and our community?
There are other areas of South Bristol which actually need more
retail space, yet building a new store at Ashton Gate, where we don't
need it, may jeopardise plans for these areas, making it impossible
for people there to walk or cycle for their shopping in the future.
Is it too much to ask that Bristol City Council consider the welfare
of local people when deciding the planning application for Sainsbury?
Shouldn't the council actually throw out this scheme simply because
it will cause tons of unnecessary carbon emissions to knock down one
stadium in order to build a bigger one and then knock down a
supermarket to build a much larger one? Doesn't it make much more
sense for both Sainsbury and BCFC to stay where they are now and to
improve the energy efficiency of their premises, rather than move?
Please object to this proposal either on the BCC website or by e-
mail or by post. Remember that you will need to quote the planning
application reference number, which is 10/00812/P.
You can send your objections to:
City Development, Brunel House, St George's Road, Bristol, BS1 5UY
or you can email:<email obscured>
Tess Green