Hands Off Our Town
Those of us who live here are very fond of Stony Stratford, and don't take kindly to outsiders proposing to re-arrange our townscape in the commercial interests of an Australian pension fund (>> click here to read views of Stony residents on this issue) So we are delighted that members of Milton Keynes Council's Development Control Committee (DCC) have voted unanimously to reject the planning application for demolishing most of Cofferidge Close and shoe-horning an out-of-scale supermarket and bigger car park into the space.
The developers claimed that a much larger store would increase 'footfall' in the High Street, be good for local businesses, and create more jobs - but they were unable to come up with any evidence to support these predictions. They also wanted to restrict parking in the Close to 2 hours, 7 days a week: this is likely to discourage people from lingering in High Street shops, pubs, and restaurants (and in church). The jobs created in-store have to be set against the loss of all jobs in Budgens and in the HIgh Street shops likely to be put out of business (butchers, baker, delicatessen, florists, card shops...). In a survey of 38 retailers conducted in April 2011, only 4 felt that a supermarket of the size proposed would attract more customers, and and many felt it would harm their business.
If implemented, these plans for a big supermarket in Cofferidge Close would probably wreck our High Street, and drastically worsen the traffic and parking situation in the town centre.
The developers claimed that a much larger store would increase 'footfall' in the High Street, be good for local businesses, and create more jobs - but they were unable to come up with any evidence to support these predictions. They also wanted to restrict parking in the Close to 2 hours, 7 days a week: this is likely to discourage people from lingering in High Street shops, pubs, and restaurants (and in church). The jobs created in-store have to be set against the loss of all jobs in Budgens and in the HIgh Street shops likely to be put out of business (butchers, baker, delicatessen, florists, card shops...). In a survey of 38 retailers conducted in April 2011, only 4 felt that a supermarket of the size proposed would attract more customers, and and many felt it would harm their business.
If implemented, these plans for a big supermarket in Cofferidge Close would probably wreck our High Street, and drastically worsen the traffic and parking situation in the town centre.
Stony High Street is alive with independent businesses and entrepreneurs
Let's keep it that way
Stony High Street - of which Cofferidge Close is an important extension - is a wonderful counter-weight to the national and multi-national retailers and superstores which dominate modern Milton Keynes, its shopping malls, and many of its local centres. People flock to Stony because of its many small independent shops and businesses. And local entrepreneurs have responded to this growing demand by imaginative and sympathetic human-scale developments in the arcades off the High Street - homes to a variety of specialist shops.
Remember the campaign to save our Library?
Stony Stratford Library
The campaign to save Stony Stratford Library from closure in 2011 was a resounding success. Friends of Stony Stratford Library (FOSSL) proactively co-ordinated the Wot No Books Campaign (12-15 Jan 2011) to empty the library in protest to the possible threat of closure. The campaign received regional, national, and even international press, radio, and TV coverage. As a result, we still have our Library.
The same community spirit that saved the library from closure has saved Cofferidge Close from demolition - so far...
The same community spirit that saved the library from closure has saved Cofferidge Close from demolition - so far...