RESIDENTS slammed a Waitrose plan for Knowle at a packed public meeting last night, warning it would be the ‘destroying’ of the village.About 250 people attended the Arden School meeting to raise concerns over parking, traffic, affect on trade and the ‘swamping’ of the village.
It comes after planning applications were submitted to put a store on the site of the village hall.
This would be moved to by the Red Lion car park with parking in the place of 10 re-homed bungalows.
There was frequent applause for speakers at the meeting – organised by The Knowle Society – with 41 questions and speeches from the floor opposing the scheme and three supporting re-development.
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One said: “This proposal is going to take the guts out of Knowle.”
A resident who lives next to the Royal Mail sorting office in St Johns Close said: “I am absolutely, incredibly opposed to this scheme.
“You really need to take into consideration the feelings of the people that have lived in this village for a very long time.”
He said two bungalows would be re-located to the back of his house and the plan was like trying to ‘make a size five fit into a size one shoe’.
He said: “They will turn it into a small town to encourage all and sundry to come in. Traffic is going to be horrific. It is going to be the destroying of Knowle.”
David Lyons, of Eric Lyons Ltd butchers in the High Street, said: “I can’t believe how they think we can put a store that size in locally.
“To move the existing village around to suit them goes against the grain very much.”
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A resident who moved to the village from Bath, Somerset questioned whether supporters would welcome a Tesco as much as Waitrose.
She said: “I think there is snob value to Waitrose and I don’t think they are that special. I prefer it as it is.”
Society chairman Peter Ewing said the conservation group has not made up its mind and ‘regrets very much’ the views of some residents who claim it backs the plan.
He said it is ‘the largest planning application to affect the village for 40 years’.
Parking
Many concerns centred on the parking -180 spaces are proposed compared to the 128 at present. This will still be managed by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, the society said.
There were guffaws when society planning committee chairman Leighton Jones reported the plan saying there would be ‘sufficient spaces although not many spare’.
And he warned: “There is a distinct possibility that the council will be looking for income and looking again to charge for car parking.”
This could be £1 for up to two hours and refundable if enough is spent in Waitrose, he said.
And he said the application was ‘contradictory’ as it is ‘trying to justify the store’ by saying it will cut down on locals driving elsewhere – but ‘admitting that people will travel to come to this store’.
He said he had been told by Kimberley Developments that negotiations were taking place with Knowle Football Club in Hampton Road for parking for staff, bringing more laughs.
Kimberley – which did not attend the meeting - has said staff will not use the public car parks.
A Kixley Lane resident said: “If they were serious in terms of their green credentials in terms of wrecking traffic flows in the area, give them no car parking spaces.”
A Starbold Crescent resident said the store would attract shoppers from across south Solihull and said: “We are going to be swamped with traffic.”
A St Johns Close resident said: “I have had people parking on my drive and go and shop at Tesco. I am not kidding.”
Fears were raised over deliveries from four lorries each day, driving up St Johns Close by Loch Fyne Seafood Bar and Grill or off Station Road by the former Wine Rack.
One woman said this posed a danger to pedestrians. And Liz Moon, of Alveston Grove, said Tesco deliveries cause ‘absolute chaos in the mornings’.
She said: “If we are having the Waitrose delivering as well then it is going to be even worse.”
A Milverton Road resident said Sunday trading would ‘increase tremendously’ if the plan went ahead.
She said ‘presently it is comparatively calm and peaceful’. She said: “If we lose this we have lost something extremely precious in Knowle – our peace on a Sunday.”
There were also concerns about vandalism and crime in new open spaces.
Housing
The society’s Mr Jones, right, pictured far right, said it did ‘have concerns’ that the plan to move the bungalows was a ‘suitable replacement’. This could ‘destroy a little community’ he said.
The bungalows – which form a row by the village hall – would be moved with six next to the Red Lion car park and two semis to the back of the sorting office.
There would be one detached on the corner of Lodge Road and Longdon Road and one detached on the site garages in St Johns Close, near the junction with Lodge Road.
A High Street resident said: “They like living there. They don’t want to move. It is the heart of the village, please keep it as it is, we love it.”
A young mother who moved to a Solihull Community Housing home in St Johns Close said two would be ‘right next to our home’ and they would feel ‘squashed up’.
She said: “We pay all our rent, we pay our council tax, we feel we are good residents, we love the village and we feel we haven’t got a voice.
“Nobody’s got back to me, I have been constantly phoning the council to ask. We have five children between us so we need our land.”
Village Hall
Michael Moorhouse, chairman of the Knowle Village Hall Association, said ‘we are not happy’ with the plan but it had to look at the move, to the old bowling green.
This is because the council could put a compulsory purchase order on the hall, which is owned by residents but leased on council land, he said.
Mr Moorhouse said: “I don’t think they will. We could be awkward and say ‘we are not moving’.”
He said ‘contrary to some letters in the press, the hall is in constant use’.
A Station Hall resident said: “There is a reason why the village hall is where it is in the centre of the village because the activities in the village hall are at the centre of the community.
“Do we really want capitalist commercialism and a supermarket which we don’t really need right in the middle and shove our village hall and community activities to the edge, to the outskirts where they can’t even be seen because they are surrounded by other buildings?”
Support
It was at this point that the first resident in favour of the plan spoke, to some applause.
A man who said he moved to the village in 1982 and owns listed buildings in the High Street said: “I am in favour of this development with a few provisos.
“We have the opportunity to demolish a 1960s village hall which is falling apart. It can be replaced at a prime location next to the Red Lion.
“It could be wonderful for the whole village and be hired out for events other than local speeches.”
And towards the end two more sounded a more optimistic tone.
One said: “In 10 to 15 years time you will have a village hall and the council will force something on to you. Make the best of it now.”
Another said: “I’m fed up with Knowle being strangled by the fact that there are only two places you can go and buy food.”
He said the High Street is cluttered with ‘restaurants and estate agents’ and the plan would ‘stimulate the High Street and bring in other retailers’.
He said: “It isn’t the right plan, it is the right idea. Just send it back and tell the drawer [of the plans] to do it again.”
Conclusion
Mr Ewin said the two-hour meeting had been ‘extremely helpful’ and urged people to give their views to the council, which will decide whether the scheme goes ahead.
He said: “Please use your democratic right. It is very important.”
Click here for details of the applications and how to respond. Click here for The Silhillian's stories about Waitrose.
The Knowle Society's Peter Ewin reflects on the meeting:
Residents give their views:
