A Public Inquiry for the Wimborne Town Green Application!

It was a sad day for Wimborne when Waitrose pulled out all the stops, and opened their Wimborne store ahead of schedule on 8 July 2010. Waitrose hastened this affront to all those who love Wimborne, despite the on-going threat hanging over them of Philip Atlay's Town Green Application eventually succeeding.

So what hope now for the Town Green Application, which was submitted in September 2009, well before any construction work had started? The Legal and Democratic Services department at county hall have been pondering what to do about the Application, and the various letters of support and objection, including a significant 400 plus Petition from this web site.

In a letter dated 10 September 2010, the County Council revealed their conclusion that a 'Non-Statutory Public Inquiry' should be held to consider the Application. The exact form of the Inquiry will be decided by the Roads and Rights of Way Committee, probably by November this year. The eventual outcome is likely to take from 8 to 12 months for a final determination of the outcome.

Representations are now being made to the County Council to hold the Inquiry in Wimborne, where feelings still run extremely strongly about this much-hated supermarket development. There is now a very real possibility of the Town Green Application succeeding. Following this eventuality, Waitrose would be served with notice to remove their illegal development forthwith, and the people of Wimborne would have their much loved vista and conservation area restored to them.

Whilst the physical removal of a new supermarket might seem to be a novel concept, not to say an expensive one, the directors of big multinational companies such as Tesco, Waitrose, Morrisons Sainsbury's and Asda would do well to take on board an important lesson - not to ride roughshod over the wishes of local residents.

When are people going to get it into their addled brains that the basis for the Town Green application is fundamentally flawed. The cricket pitch was not a public space and anyone using it who was not involved with the cricket club or a member of the Hanham family was trespassing. The Town Green application is a waste of taxpayers money and a drain on civil service resources at a time when there is precious little money to spend on critical issues like health and social services - the person who submitted the application should be ashamed of themselves..! Everyone should move on - Waitrose is in town and is welcomed by many. William Hanham has probably spent the money he was paid for the site and is highly unlikely to buy it back so what would happen if the legal owners of the site (Waitrose) were to pull the store down? They would sell it to the highest bidder and believe me that would not be a group of crackpots who want to turn it back into a field! More likely it would end up being housing or a derelict industiral site....

Incidentally, Waitrose is not a multinational company....

We have enjoyed strolling on the newly accsssible land beside Waitrose and it's a pleasant space. The only possible basis for a Town Green application would be if it were to be dated from the opening of Waitrose, not before, when the cricket ground was pernanently locked and inaccessible. Get real KWTG.

Philip Atlay and his supporters participated in the democratic process to determine the approval or otherwise of the new Waitrose store. Whilst I wholly disagreed with his views , I nevertheless respected his entitlement to appose the development. Having lost, Atlay could well have used his energies to making the best of the new store, possibly campaigning for whatever improvements possible for the town. Alas, Atlay and his band chose to take the route of being the very epitome of bad losers. The KWTG group has lost any respect they may have once had and are now seen as a delusional band of mischief-makers seemingly hell bent on taking us back to the dark ages and quite out of touch with the current views of the majority of Wimborne residents. It is indeed ironic that it has been Waitrose, and certainly NOT Philip Atlay and his chums, who have for the first time given us a Town Green!

Those who would have preferred to have seen the former cricket ground kept as private land (to which the public do not have access...) just do not seem to understand that the land was freehold land being sold by its legitimate owner for its free market value (presumably measured in millions of pounds). So, and this is the big SO, if anyone wanted it kept as a private green they must first come up with the cash to buy it in the competitive market of land aquasition. This is the simple fact that has seemingly escaped every single person who has expressed a wish to keep the land green. They just fail to grasp the simple fact that it was freehold land being sold for development, so any wish to keep it green MUST be supported by a plan to buy it at its market value (and also bearing in mind the owner can in any case choose whoever he/she wishes to sell the land to!). This is where the heady wishful thinking of KWTG all just falls to pieces. Do these well intended but regrettably delusional supporters of keeping the (private) green honestly think that our town council should have coughed up an absolute fortune to buy the land? Was KWTG prepared to buy it? In the absence of such a plan, can they not get their heads around the simple fact that the land in question WILL be built upon, so its a question of WHAT would we prefer to see being built, not some heady pie-in-the-sky notion of 'keeping it' and seeing housing or whatever winning the day with the prospect on NO open riverside park as we see today – thanks entirely to Waitrose.