Marple In Action - Fighting the sale of Hibbert Lane College to a Supermarket Chain

Marple Community & Shops are under threat - say NO NOW!

Follow MiA on Facebook	Register for Our Newsletter
BACK GROUND INFO This page	HOW YOU CAN HELP Letters, emails, protests and more	LATEST NEWS What's going on & what happens next?

HAVE YOUR SAY..
on the Community Forum

SIGN THE PETITION
and leave your comments

DOWNLOAD NEW POSTER
and display in your window or garden

Marple in Action is a group formed in response to the threat of a proposed
giant supermarket opening on Hibbert Lane!

Marple in Action thinks that a large retail development on this site would be disastrous for Marple in many ways:

It would pull shoppers away from the centre of Marple which would affect the local shops
The proposed site is large. Aerial photographs show a comparable scale to Tesco on Portwood (real dimensions are unconfirmed) so potentially we could have quite a large store there, which would bring shoppers in from outside Marple, this would add to our already congested roads. A Tesco Superstore* in Dunfermline hopes to attract 30,000 customers per week [source: Note of Meeting with Tesco, Tuesday 29th June 2010 at Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline] *Tesco Superstores are a 'standard large supermarkets, stocking groceries and a much smaller range of non-food goods than Tesco Extra stores'. [Source: Wikipedia]
Be out of character with the rest of Marple · Residents would be affected by the increased traffic caused by shoppers and deliveries and property values along Hibbert Lane may be reduced as a consequence In Stour, Tesco estimate that the new car-park will fill up and empty again approx. once every hour which would lead to nearly 700 extra car movements per hour at peak times. Stour Community First group believe the free car park won't solve traffic problems, but make them worse. [Source: Stour Community First newsletter Sept 2008 The Tesco Myth Busters www.stourcommunityfirst.org]
Elderly people living adjacent to and close by the proposed development site could find their peaceful retirement years disrupted

The current situation has arisen because Cheadle & Marple Sixth Form College want to sell the Hibbert Lane Campus and raise Ł10-12m to refurbish the Buxton Lane Campus.

There is nothing to stop the College selling the land to the highest bidder they can find, and given that they need to such a large amount of money, it appears that only the large supermarkets can afford to buy the land.

According to Stockport Council, the Hibbert Lane Campus is outside the District Centre boundaries of Marple and therefore is outside the retail 'zone' and any planning application for retail use on the site would be refused.

BUT refused applications can be appealed against, and there have been many instances of supermarkets gaining permission after the appeal process. On 27 June 2008 Manningtree Town Council (Stour) opposed the proposed Tesco Store. Tesco appealed, and on 12 May 2010 the District Council rejected the application again. Tesco submitted a new planning application and held a series of public exhibitions. The application was due to heard on 26 July 2011 by the District Council, but was deferred. [Source: stourcommunityfirst website www.stourcommunityfirst.org/html/news__comment.html]

The appeal process is not a local process, decisions are taken at national level, and the appeal process has to be paid for by Stockport Council (ultimately the taxpayers) [Read press release about the cost of Tesco appeal in Hadleigh www.eadt.co.uk/news/hadleigh_tesco_plans_rejected_in_knife_edge_vote_1_95557]

We could not prevent a supermarket buying the land the holding on to it until they have worn the appeals process down (in Prestatyn it took Tesco 15 years to finally get permission, the land was turned into a temporary car park which was an eyesore).

Waiting until a planning application is submitted by developers and raising objections at that stage is too late, most of process takes place in pre-planning meetings that the public are not consulted about. The planning permission is the 'rubber-stamp' to what has been agreed in the pre-planning meetings.

Marple in Action is NOT against another supermarket opening in Marple, but think that it should:

Be of a suitable size to serve the population of Marple.
Be located in the town centre, where it would be more appropriate and benefit our local shops.
We feel that there must be better uses of the land that would benefit the whole community of Marple, such as affordable housing for young families or retired people, a community centre and/or health centre, more facilities for the youth of Marple.

Marple in Action needs your support: find out how you can help!

** Marple Civic Society, Registered Charity 236593, are acting as banker for donations towards the Marple in Action Campaign.