We love Ledbury

3:50pm Wednesday 29th February 2012 in Letters

WE love Ledbury, unlike so many of the Sainsbury’s supporters who insist on their right to shop at a huge megastore here, regardless of the effect it might have.

We have spent several months researching the Health of Ledbury High St, and our findings from the street corners are clear.

Residents and visitors to Ledbury told us they love our town for what it is and hopefully will be, and they pleaded with us not to let a superstore wreck it.

Visitor after visitor commented their own towns have been severely damaged by out-of-town retail areas, but they love ours for its uniqueness and vibrancy.

Why would Herefordshire Council or Ledbury Town Council choose to ignore this? Shops in Ledbury need footfall in order to survive both the threat of the superstore and the rise of online shopping.

Most shopkeepers we spoke to don’t fear a bigger Tesco within the town. If a Sainsbury’s superstore is built on the ring road, footfall will inevitably be reduced. Ledbury is wonderful and precious, its High Street fragile.

ALICE HUNT - Evesbatch
ANNIE PEAKE - Ledbury

Comments(13)

Colin J Marschall says...
10:53pm Wed 29 Feb 12

With all due respect to you both your comment "unlike so many of the Sainsbury’s supporters" is not only false but a pretty myopic view of the thousands who supported the application. Not one person I have spoken to within the LESS group (or outside) of it would support something that they felt would damage the high street. We are all entitled to our opinions but to be told that we don't love Ledbury is a cheap shot at people who have over many years supported the town, LESS do not see how a supermarket is going to effect the tourist industry here in Ledbury, the store won't be a major attraction to them. LESS agree Ledbury is unique and in the context of that word cannot really be compared to any other town, otherwise it isn't unique. Your views are of course yours to hold, but please do not assume those who don't agree with you love Ledbury any less than you do.

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Cuchulainn says...
9:19am Sat 3 Mar 12

Perhaps Galebreakers could start a trend in helping the youngsters of the town by Apprenticeships, I think if companies in Lebury some of the bigger ones started this it would be a good thing, not only does this promote business but shows a companies commitment to the local community. Though the UK will only change its attitude towards offering apprentices if the Government ramps up awareness of the training scheme. http://www.apprentic
eships.org.uk/About-
Us/National-Apprenti
ceship-Service.aspx

This perhaps needs to start in the schools, does John Masefield have a local campaign to raise awareness of Apprenticeships with the local business community? The current Tesco used to have a cafe, perfect for that Sunday morning hangover, and probably a better range of food years ago than it does now, so needs a revamp. As many others have said Tesco committed to the Town as did Somerfield / COOP as people know so why should another supermarket bully its way in for a share of the pie. Tourists as you call them could be any number of people coming via Ledbury, what defines a tourist "One who travels for pleasure" I travel for pleasure if I visit Worcester am I a tourist? A Tourist could visit Ledbury and be distracted by a out of town superstore ..or for arguement sake..an on the edge of town supermarket. I have done it went somewhere like Worcester distracted to Lidl / Aldi could not be bothered going round the town/city and came home, so it does happen. Tourists are normally seasonal " the kind that holiday in the area" busy in summer quite in winter, and any town will show this. What does it either current traders to possibly look at ranges they have whether its clothing food and see if they can promote ranges that affordable to all. Any town will have its shops with things people cannot afford but others can, I live in the land of fleeces and t-shirts.

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Colin J Marschall says...
12:10pm Sat 3 Mar 12

Cuchulainn or Mr McHendry, Totally agree with you on the aprenticeship idea, but as we only really have one big company in Ledbury, what others do you suggest .. UBL, Meadow Cheese perhaps. If it can be achieved then that is excellent news for a few of Ledbury's younger generation .. thats if they decide they want to stay here, even you must admit there is a dire lack of facilities for our young people in Ledbury, perhaps its time we started asking them what they see as the towns future afterall they are the future of this town.
John Masefield do have regular updates on apprenticeships, however no local firm seems to offer them, I believe it has something to do with the type of insurance they must have for that age group .. however I could be wrong in that.
Can you ever see the current Tesco, unless enlarged, offering such items as a full range of clothing, with just a re-vamp and if it is enlarged how would the increase in delivery lorries and cars be handled, already the residents of Napp Lane are up in arms about the amount of traffic using the road, then there is any increase arriving from the Ross area, as LOTS have already stated people will find the shortest route to their destination which means increase in traffic in Lower Road, Barnett Ave, Queensway, LongAcreas etc of which most will pass directly outside the primary school. There is a difference between a tourist and a visitor, you travelling to worcester makes you a visitor, but if you travelled to York and were staying in the area for a time then you'd become a tourist. A visitor may very well be "distracted" to a store, where as a tourist would normally be coming here to see the buildins etc so really wouldn't have much interest in a supermarket. I agree tourists are normally seasonal and as such I would expect that the majority of Ledbury's shops make their profit at this time of year. In my opinion the balance in Ledbury between the tourist industry and the people who live here has been weighted heavily to the tourists for a number of years and that isn't really acceptable. Maybe there are shops in town who could look to expand or change their ranges, but that hasn't happened for the last 20 years, almost every shop that has opened (except Wellworthit) has been geared towards the more affulent and/or the tourist industry and yes all towns will have things not avaialble .. but Ledbury is very high on that list.

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drewinledbury says...
2:48pm Sat 3 Mar 12

Colin Marschall or Againstbs...would you care also too differentiate between residents and locals?

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Cuchulainn says...
2:58pm Sat 3 Mar 12

Mr Cuchlainn to you Mr Marschall you would not want to get me confused with someone else would you..

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Colin J Marschall says...
7:11pm Sat 3 Mar 12

Cuchulainn wrote:
Mr Cuchlainn to you Mr Marschall you would not want to get me confused with someone else would you..
I don't think there is any confusion at all.

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jmccabe says...
8:54pm Sat 3 Mar 12

You amaze me Colin; for someone who's so pro-Ledbury, and such a "born and bred" Ledburyite I would've expected you to know how Knapp Lane is spelt.

I'm also intrigued by your change of heart regarding the potential for increased traffic in Knapp Lane; on numerous occasions in the past you've claimed that people from the Malvern direction wouldn't be coming to a massive superstore on the bypass so how come you're now using the potential increase in traffic from that direction for what one would hope would be a significantly smaller store on Orchard Lane?

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baboo2you says...
9:19pm Sat 3 Mar 12

Perhaps there are 2 lanes

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Colin J Marschall says...
10:38am Mon 5 Mar 12

jmccabe wrote:
You amaze me Colin; for someone who's so pro-Ledbury, and such a "born and bred" Ledburyite I would've expected you to know how Knapp Lane is spelt.

I'm also intrigued by your change of heart regarding the potential for increased traffic in Knapp Lane; on numerous occasions in the past you've claimed that people from the Malvern direction wouldn't be coming to a massive superstore on the bypass so how come you're now using the potential increase in traffic from that direction for what one would hope would be a significantly smaller store on Orchard Lane?
Having a certain type of problem with spelling I excuse myself on the spelling of Knapp Lane, something which it would seem is an important issue to you .. but there again it is just another reason for you to try and discredit me in the eyes of others. Using the increase in Traffic is nothing more than a little dig at LOTS's own conclusion, it could easily be said that using it as a reason to go against the Sainsbury's application and then promoting an enlarged Tesco is also "a change of heart" as far as LOTS are concerned, the main traffic issue isn't so much that area but the Lower Road etc, which I notice you conveniently skip over. As to the "significantly smaller store" well we will have to wait and see on that one, that is ofcourse if it every comes to fruitation, but of course any increase in the store size will increase traffic through the afore mentioned areas.

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MissPonter says...
2:44pm Tue 6 Mar 12

jmccabe wrote:
You amaze me Colin; for someone who's so pro-Ledbury, and such a "born and bred" Ledburyite I would've expected you to know how Knapp Lane is spelt. I'm also intrigued by your change of heart regarding the potential for increased traffic in Knapp Lane; on numerous occasions in the past you've claimed that people from the Malvern direction wouldn't be coming to a massive superstore on the bypass so how come you're now using the potential increase in traffic from that direction for what one would hope would be a significantly smaller store on Orchard Lane?
How petty that you feel the need to belittle someone for spelling a lane incorrectly. Maybe you are the one that needs to go back to school jmccabe as your playground bullying tactics are not welcome in todays society.

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jmccabe says...
12:17am Wed 7 Mar 12

I like the irony in your comment MissPonter!

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MissPonter says...
9:03am Wed 7 Mar 12

So you think it's acceptable to belittle someone for not spelling the name of a lane correctly? If you think that kind of behaviour is acceptable then there is something seriously wrong. If you cannot have a sensible discussion without resorting to cheap shots then that says alot about your intellect. The Ledbury reporter site is for commenting on letters - not trying to make people look like idiots.

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jmccabe says...
10:39am Wed 7 Mar 12

Colin said:
Using the increase in Traffic is nothing more than a little dig at LOTS's own conclusion

Do you really expect anyone to believe that?

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