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Sainsburys – Bishops Waltham

15 Aug in Brush Cottage | Comments (1)

We live nestled between beautiful, historic Winchester and the quaint market town of Bishops Waltham. It’s the best of both worlds for me – all the bigger shops and conveniences are available in Winchester, while Bishops Waltham provides small, individually owned, unique little boutique shops and restaurants – that and far less expensive parking!

Over the last year or so, the Bishops Waltham community has been all abuzz with the pending planning applications by Sainsburys to build a store in the town. The question for me has always been - “Do we need it?” Within 10 miles there is one (and sometimes 2) large store of every supermarket chain in the UK. How many more do we need?…….But then I can get in my car, whenever I want to and drive to wherever it is that I want to go.

Bishops Waltham has an individually owned, green grocer, butcher, fishmonger and deli as well as a (okay, I admit…frankly dismal) Budgens and 2 Co-Ops…. isn’t that enough? I have no doubt that these businesses will not survive for too long after the arrival of Sainsburys.

There are other issues for me as well… there will undoubtably be an increase in traffic and will this traffic do as the locals do and grind to a halt, patiently waiting for the swans and ducks who live on the pond to cross the busy road?

How will the building works and increase in traffic affect the medieval palace ruins – just a stones throw from the proposed site?

As fas as I know, most people are against the proposal – the Community have formed an action group and the Liberal Democrats have been very active in their campaign against it. But sadly, most people I know seem to think, that regardless of this and the petitions we have all signed, it’s a forgone conclusion.

I went into Bishops Waltham yesterday morning , for the first time in about a month. I was sad to see that 2 really wonderful shops have closed. Jannaways was a unique little shop, always filled with decorative items and small pieces of vintage style furniture – the perfect place to pop into if you were looking for that little something special.

Mad Max has also gone – this was a little womens clothing boutique, again filled with clothes that you would not find on the high street. Mad Max was the first boutique that bought my jewellery from me when I started Twinkleberry and was selling through boutiques, before I had my site. I will always be grateful to the lovely Jan – who owned it at the time – for always chatting to me over a coffee and giving me, a fledgling business owner, advice and encouragement.

Did these shops close because of the imminent arrival of a Sainsburys store… I don’t think so, I don’t know why they closed. But the sight of 2 empty spaces in a small shopping district made me all to aware of how this little town will change – I think for the worse – with the arrival of a large and undiscerning retailer.

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Sainsburys – Bishops Waltham

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