‘Don’t sell our cattle market to a supermarket’ says Mayor

THE Mayor of Thame has asked the District Council to promise not to sell the town’s Cattle Market site for a supermarket. Addressing South Oxfordshire District Council?s Planning committee last night, when it rejected Sainsbury?s plans to build a supermarket on Thame?s Cattle Market site, the Mayor of Thame, Nigel Champken Woods, asked the local planning authority to make a clear statement that it will not sell the site to a supermarket. 

By announcing such a commitment, and working with the town council to develop the site ?with the best interests of the community of Thame in mind,? he said, ?A lot of time and money fighting such applications could be saved.?

Helena Richards Spoke to the committee on behalf of Cmag (Cattle Market Action Group), explaining that her working group represented more than 100 community groups, whose aim was to ensure that the site be used ?for the best, possible benefit to the people of Thame,? including that a significant portion be developed for community use. She told the committee that it was her group?s view that Sainsbury?s plans for a community centre did not meet the aspirations and needs of local people. (You can see Helena Richards? full representation HERE at 01:23:50)

Angela Wilson spoke on behalf of the Lea Park Residents? Association which, she said, had voted in a poll against the development. ?Sainsbury?s have chosen to ignore the views of the people of Thame,? she said, ?and based their argument on the legal framework without regard to the particular character of the town.? She said that she felt a supermarket on the Cattle Market site would be ?sufficiently distant from the heart of the town centre to monopolise customers and actively prevent them from visiting other shops.?

Following her statement that the current cattle market is only busy and noisy for a limited number of hours, and that a supermarket, trading seven days a week would adversely affect neighbours, Cllr John Cotton asked her: ?How would you compare that to a mixed used development that would probably involve some retail?? She replied that the majority of shops in Thame now trade between 9am and 6pm, whereas these days people expect supermarkets to be open all hours. (Angela Wilson?s full representation and Cllr Cotton?s questioning can be seen on the webcast HERE at 01:26:30)

Two supporters of the Sainsbury?s plan addressed the meeting, Chris Turner (Agent for the applicant) and Richard Ivory, on behalf of the Thame Farmers Auction Mart, who were relying on the plan being approved to gain promised funding from Sainsbury?s to pay for the Cattle Market to move to larger, new premises to be developed on the Thame Show ground.

Richard Ivory told the committee that the redevelopment of the cattle market site, would be ?a catalyst for the building of a new auction centre on Thame Show ground” and would ?secure the future for 300 farmers that use Thame market, Thame agriculture show and keep Thame a thriving market town.? Refusal of the plan, he said, would result in a possible move of the market away from Thame and possibly out of Oxfordshire. He feared, he said, that if agreement could not be found for development of the Cattle Market site, it could remain ?a dilapidated eye sore? and ?a drain on the council?s finances? for many years. (You can see Richard Ivory?s full presentation and questioning by councillors HERE at: 01:30:34

Chris Turner, on behalf of Sainsbury?s, drew laughter from the public gallery when he said that the planned development had the approval of 53% of local residents. ?It will improve main food shopping, choice and competition in Thame,? he said, adding that ?almost 40% (of residents?) currently do their main food shopping elsewhere. He maintained that the plan would increase footfall to the town, increase parking places, provide a new community centre and create around 80 new jobs.

Cllr Rook later questioned Mr Turner on the methodology of the shopping survey. (01:42:50)

Mr Turner said that the Local Plan policy to preclude a supermarket for the site was based on outdated data and took no account of ?over-trading by Waitrose of £10 million per year, nor the likely ?claw back? of trading from the likes of Asda, Wheatley.? He complained of a lack of consultation in the Thame Neighbourhood Plan regarding the possibility of a supermarket on the site and, when questioned by Cllr Jenni Wood, his fellow supporter Richard Ivory, said that he would encourage people to vote against the TNP because the community centre offered in Sainsbury?s plan is being denied them. (paraphrased ? see 01:37:14 for his full comments)

Mr Turner was asked about the actual design of the building, and whether it was ?the best you can do?, particularly with reference to the North Street frontage and the choice of materials. He replied that: ?Given the difficulties having to run a supermarket, a public face and requiring services, there are many competing influences on design. In terms of making this a viable building???., this is the best we can do.?

Cllr John Cotton asked Mr Turner why this proposal was the only viable way of funding the move of the cattle market. He replied that the Thame Auction Mart is happy that Sainsbury?s can deliver the cost of the move in a suitable time period. Without Sainsbury?s, he added, the Cattle Market is left without any principle backer to enable it to move to the show ground.

Cllr Mike Welply, the council member for Thame, then spoke, referring to the Local Plan?s stated policy that there should be no food store built on the Cattle Market, a site ?of enourmous impact on the social fabric of the town.? He told the committee (01:43:50) that it was his opinion that the Cattle Market was ?? of no importance to Thame. ? He said that the farmers came and sold their animals and then went away again without making any impact on the town,? and said that pigs were now sold over the internet.

Cllr Welply suggested that the farmers, who, he said, were set to pick up £50 million in land value from new developments around the various sites identified in the Neighbourhood Plan, should ?give them the money.?

A letter from District Cllr David Bretherton was read out to the meeting in which he stated that the Sainsbury?s application was ?a predatory proposal, seeking to exploit a perceived gap in planning policy.? Criticising the design of the store, Cllr Bretherton said that he thought the applicant had ?mistaken Thame for the Cotswolds? in its choice of materials, and that the plan would push long-term parking into the High Street.

The concluding proposal and and discussion can all be viewed in the webcast, including a suggested amendment by Cllr Cotton, that was lost. HERE

PHOTO: The Mayor of Thame Nigel Champken Woods