Jo Jo’s card shop owner Linda Baker told The Silhillian she expected to leave this year to another location in the village but had no further information.
Meanwhile, Karma Beauty, below, has been moved by Sainsbury’s to new premises in Station Approach.
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A sign in the window of the precinct had said Jo Jo’s would leave ‘early this year’.
The only other shop in the precinct is Dyhouse Pharmacy.
A plan to demolish the centre for a massive Sainsbury’s store was thrown out by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council in March.
Sainsbury’s then carried out workshops and a questionnaire with residents to help devise a new application.
The Dorridge and District Residents Association has reported the new scheme will be about 19,000 sq ft, about 25 per cent smaller than the rejected plan.
The car park would be on top of the store and not underneath as first proposed and would provide 180 instead of 220 spaces.
The goods entrance would be off Station Road and not Forest Road.
Crucially, the plan would not involve providing a new home for The Dorridge Practice doctors’ surgery, it reported.
Association chairman Ian Spencer said: “Sainsbury's have a mantra of needing their return on investment, but if Sainsbury's want our money and impose a development on Dorridge then they need to give something in return.
“What was proposed at the last workshop did not do that. lf there is no doctors' surgery, what does Dorridge gain from a development?
“Given that Sainsbury's and their predecessor ran down Forest Court and it was Sainsbury's
choice to pay an excessive amount for a site that they complain is expensive to develop, it is
hard to be sympathetic to suggestions that in some way Sainsbury's are doing us any favours.
“Yet we are faced with the semi-derelict building in the centre which is frankly an embarrassment to live with, with no prospect of a practical alternative being available without Sainsbury’s”
And he questioned whether the council are ‘neutral arbiters’ of the plan given officers recommended it be approved but some councillors were ‘playing to the gallery’ by demanding it be refused.
He said concerns remained about car parking, the size of the store and the impact on roads.
Karma Beauty re-opened this month.
Owner Barb Charrington said: “The new salon is so much more welcoming and upmarket, our customers love it and so do all the staff. All the girls now have their own individual treatment rooms.”
“We hope this move will make a big impact on the success of the business, we are already finding that people are noticing us more and coming in to pick up price lists and find out about treatments."
She added: “We couldn’t have done this without Sainsbury’s, they have given us an opportunity as a business which we never could have dreamt of otherwise.”
Click here for previous stories about the Sainsbury’s plans.
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