9:17am Friday 5th February 2010
RE: The planning approval granted in principle last week to Sainsbury’s to take over the site occupied by Waitrose in West Street, Marlow.
ALTHOUGH we all knew it was imminent, it was nevertheless sad to see your headline in last week’s Marlow Free Press regarding the demise of Waitrose.
We have been lucky to have the company trading in the town for so long – a good compromise between a supermarket and corner shop!
The staff are well known to us, and the service and customer care second to none. It is no surprise that Waitrose consistently comes out near the top of best retailers in the UK – often only beaten by John Lewis, its parent company.
Although it is welcome that Waitrose retains a presence in the new Liston Road site, it will be no replacement, as of course it will be a basket-only shop.
We did have the chance to have a new large bright, modern store, with improved parking, but this was rejected by our town council, on our behalf.
Marlow now faces a prolonged period with no major supermarket, then not one but two Sainsbury’s. The town is already looking forlorn, and these stores will do nothing to improve that.
Alex Collingwood worries about the loss of a few parking spaces.
It’s time the town council and district council starting taking bolder decisions.
The supermarket argument is over, and now the major problem facing us is parking. Marlow may be tired, but traffic threatens to choke us to death.
We have to accept that we all need food, and most of us need to drive. It’s no good worrying about the odd dozen parking spaces lost, a broader, bolder plan is needed. For instance, we have to address the problems caused by workers, and school children using our streets as car parks. I’m sure a lot of us have ideas on this, but we pay planners whose job it is to devise solutions.
I know that Waitrose wanted to build on the outskirts of town, but WDC rejected the idea. Why?
It makes sense to take the food shopping out of the town centre. There is more space, more, and easier parking.
Instantly you relieve the town of cars, parking and food shoppers. And no, we don’t all decide to spend in the High Street because we are food shopping, we will probably do that on a separate occasion. The result is that there’s more space to park because the supermarket has gone, and High Street shopping suddenly becomes much more pleasant and attractive proposition.
I have lived in Marlow a long time, and the town is sadder now than I have ever known it. It’s no good trying to preserve the town in aspic, we need to accept the problems we have and deal with them. We have now lost too many opportunities to redevelop. New doesn’t have to be bad, it can breathe new life into an ailing patient which sadly Marlow now seems to be.
John Richmond, Spinfield Lane, Marlow.
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