Please find below the much requested template letter for objection to the proposed Sainsbury store on Mill Road.
You are most welcome to use this letter but we would encourage you to make it individual and personal to you if possible. The deadline for objections is 29th July 2011.
There will be a stall on Saturday as the deadline approaches – outside Mickey Flynn – with music and a tug of war between our own Sainsbury and Tesco teams! Please come along and support the campaign!
Keep it Local!
Mr Tony Collins
Planning Department
Cambridge City Council
Mandela House
4 Regent Street
Cambridge CB1 1BY
Dear Mr Collins,
I am writing to object to the planning application made by Sainsbury’s in respect of 103 Mill Road (Ref 11/0710/FUL). I do so on the following grounds:
1. The snooker hall is a popular leisure venue used by many local people of all ages, particularly young people. It provides an important alternative to the pubs in the area and is the only leisure facility on Mill Road. If it is lost, Mill Road will have no leisure facilities of any kind anywhere on its whole length.
2. Deliveries and increased traffic to this store would pose a serious danger in view of the site. This area of Mill Road is an accident black-spot. The large number of weekly deliveries, made from Mill Road, would cause problems for pedestrians, cyclists, cars, buses and emergency vehicles. The change of use to a Class A1 and the high levels of servicing required by a Sainsbury’s Local would mean a huge increase in deliveries to the site. This will greatly increase the risk to other road users, as the planning inspector found in his judgement against Tesco on Mill Road in 2008.
3. In addition to the risks posed by Sainsbury’s delivery plans, visits to the store by car, including to the proposed ATM machine, will create increased risks for other road users. As people who live near the Tesco Express store on Mill Road know, there is a frequent risk to pedestrians and cyclists caused by cars driving onto the pavement outside the store to use the store and/or ATM. Approving this application will make Mill Road significantly more dangerous than it already is.
4. We already have a large number of convenience and other food stores with a huge variety of foods on sale in Mill Road. Any more convenience food shops will be detrimental to the character of the area and the introduction of yet another national multiple retailer threatens the vitality and viability of the area as a local shopping centre known for independent shops. This would not only be a huge loss to the area but would be contrary to the spirit of the emerging direction of national legislation, in the form of the Localism Bill, as well as to the Cambridge Local Plan.
Your name:
Your address with postcode:
Date:
