Posts Tagged ‘Scone’

A couple of people have told me they missed the November 6th edition of the Perthshire Advertiser in which I ranted on about the proposed supermarket in Scone. Following publication the Community Council contacted me and asked for permission to reprint it in their next free newsletter, so an antidote to SCoPE will be forthcoming through every letter box in the village in the next few weeks. How exciting!

After my letter was published I was pleasantly surprised to receive phone calls, texts, Facebook messages and be stopped in the street by many people who not only agreed, but wanted to thank me for putting my neck on the line and speaking out. Apparently I’m only saying what a lot of people are thinking which, if you know me, makes a nice change! The following week a further two letters were published from residents who support a new supermarket in the village. Last week, on 20th November “Name and address supplied” sent in a cowardly unsigned letter brandishing my views stupid, selfish and dishonest. My reply has been sent to the PA and I’ll be reproducing it here once they have had a chance to publish (or not) on Friday.There’s really no need to get personal.

In the meantime I have setup an online survey, which I hope the PA will publish a link to, and I invite any local residents whether from Scone, Perth or the outlying villages, to make their views known. It’s all very well that the people I meet give me a slap on the back, but if the consensus is that we are opposed then it really needs more than the current handful of very vocal people to stand up and say “No” (or “Yes” or “Don’t Care”).

Several people have voiced a desire to see a local group setup in opposition to SCoPE, the main naysayers who seem to think they speak on behalf of the whole village. It may come to that if I can figure out what needs to be done to move it forward (or anyone else? hint hint!).

So, for now here’s a full draft of the letter I sent to the PA. It was only slightly altered, I think I laboured the wine point a bit much. Enjoy!

Who will it be now?

“It’s time someone spoke up on behalf of the thousands of Scone residents who didn’t protest at the Park and Ride on Saturday 31st October, who didn’t return their questionnaire in May this year and who aren’t being called to rally in support of the proposed supermarket development in Scone.

My family has lived in the village for four generations and each of those generations has witnessed some expansion or development that threatens to “kill-off” the village and turn it into an un-serviced suburb of Perth. Clearly this has not happened. I am not the first generation to stop, take a look around and not recognize the place I grew up in, yet when I was invited to protest against this supermarket by a group of parents I was amused to find that not one of them had lived here longer than seven years. “What do these people know of how the village has changed?” I asked myself. It changed to accommodate them! To claim that any further development would destroy their village, the same village that has expanded time and time again with the housing developments they live in, is surely a joke? It is utterly ridiculous that people move into villages that have had to grow and develop to allow them to live there then demand that they cease to change forthwith.

With the best will in the world, nobody who purchases a car load of groceries a week can do so in the village stores, they just don’t stock enough lines to provide that sort of service. People who use the village shops choose them because they are convenient, or perhaps they only need a few things, or they actively support small independent business or, it’s not beyond imagination, they have already downed a bottle of wine before they realised they would need two (it happens).

There are many reasons to use local shops and for some people they will be the only ones they use. The Scone shops manage quite happily despite the fact that many of us drive to Perth for our “main” shop. Building a supermarket on the edge of the village will replace the weekly trek into town for those of us who shop for a large family but it will not stop us nipping to the Co-Op for milk and bread (and maybe wine) if that’s what we already do. It will not stop people who only shop in Spar from continuing to only shop in Spar and nothing will ever replace taking your child to The Sweetie Shop so they can stand on the stool and pick from the tuppenny tray.

With regard to traffic, we have no right to protest through traffic in Scone when we tolerate 6 buses an hour and vote for a footbridge across the Tay rather than a road bridge that would direct haulage away from the village. A daily supermarket delivery is but a drop in that particular road pollution ocean.

Finally, and not altogether seriously, I have heard calls to “Think of the children!” Well I have three and despite my efforts to ignore them I do often fail. Should they ever get the urge to earn their own money I would be a far happier Mum to have them work after school in a local supermarket, rather than have to put that Friday wine from the Co-Op on hold so I could go pick them up from some far flung supermarket off the No7 route.

The 4000+ Scone residents who didn’t protest last weekend and the 81% who didn’t return their questionnaires in May 2009 should not be dismissed. We are the silent majority who either welcome growth, relish change and crave the services that bigger towns have or don’t have much of an opinion either way. That said, if anyone doesn’t agree with this development and hasn’t said so then perhaps it’s time to disassociate from the silent majority and make yourself heard.

Nobody will be forced to use any new supermarket! If it succeeds it will be because people use it and therefore support it. Maybe I am naïve but I believe the only business that a Scone supermarket will get is business that already goes to big supermarkets elsewhere. The driving issue isn’t whether the people of Scone want a supermarket, as clearly only a few don’t, it’s what the people of Scone will choose to do when they get one that counts.”

Oh dear I think I might be a de-activist.

An email landed in my Inbox mid-August from the self-styled “Scone Militant Front”. To be fair that name was quantified by a ”ha ha”. Somebody sent it to somebody who sent it to somebody who thought I might be on board with their aims so sent it to me.

This is a bit of a local beef so probably not very interesting for anyone who lives outwith a 5 mile radius of my dinky little village. But it’s a recognisable beef as towns and villages the country over will have some experience of locking horns with planners, developers and especially supermarkets. If they don’t they will. Sometime.

To put it in perspective, Scone isn’t a town. It’s not got a centre as such. We have  around 4,500 people, a Co-Op, a Spar, a Tesco Express at the petrol station, a chemist, a baker, a ladies clothes shop, a newsagent, furniture/carpet store, a sweetie shop and we still have a Post Office.  I use all the shops in the village except the clothes shop and the furniture shop. Oh and the newsagent, everyone sells papers (truthfully I have no idea how it remains viable since the smoking age was raised to 18). The sweetie shop is rarely open.

I walk to all these village shops (sometimes I skip – especially when I’m off to replenish the wine). Some might say for a place so small we are pretty well served, but the small village stores cannot stock everything all that much, milk and bread run out by tea-time and they are prohibitively expensive to feed a family of five from. I have no alternative but to drive into Perth for my main grocery shop.

Why the hell wouldn’t I want a supermarket on the edge of the village?

Ignoring the fact that it’s going to be sited at the entrance of the latest mass housing development… actually can that be ignored? Anyway… the main thrust of the objections seem to be traffic volume, impact on local businesses, aesthetics and “think of the children!”.

One at a time.

Traffic. At the moment everyone in Scone has to travel somewhere to purchase reasonably priced groceries. Everyone North of Scone must also travel somewhere, either Perth or (since it got a big Tesco) Blairgowrie. That’s a big area. They travel in cars. A lot of them through Scone. I’m all for them stopping at the northern end of the village, shopping, and heading back north without having to set wheel in Scone. Scone people who choose to drive to this new supermarket will also save fuel miles as its closer. Even better, if it’s Tesco, Asda or Morrisons then people from Perth won’t bother driving out to it (though Tesco have already denied it’s them).

Impact on local business isn’t even a starter. Given the choice of walking to the Co-Op or driving to the new supermarket I will walk to the Co-Op. I already make this decision when I choose not to drive to ANY supermarket for one or two things when I can walk to my local convenience store. Why would that change? After polishing off a bottle of wine my custom at the Co-Op for the next bottle is very safe indeedy. If  anyone really believes that people will abandon the village shops in favour of a shiny new supermarket that says more about their inability to resist shiny new things than mine.

Aesthetics. The proposed site is on the edge of the village. There’s nothing there to spoil. In fact the NIMBYs should be partying that they’re not squeezing in another 700 houses and hitting them where it really hurts, in their equity. The massive housing developments that have sprung up around Scone in the last 5-10 years have fucked village aesthetics well and truly. I’m a fourth generation villager so anyone sitting in a shiny new Stephens house, or anywhere else for that matter, needn’t waste time telling ME the village will be spoiled by ONE SHOP. It was spoiled a long time ago.

Think of the children! Yes, think of the part-time jobs for them. Think of them not having to get back from working an after school job in Perth at all hours of the night. Think of it.

In the face of this activism I guess I’m just a de-activist. I did think of writing to the Planning Department to support the supermarket but decided it’s probably not necessary. The departing Community Council sent out 2000 questionnaires and 367 were returned. All 367 were in opposition. They say this is a resounding no with 100% opposition. I (and anyone else who can count) say 82% are either in support or couldn’t give a rat’s arse. Either way I bet all 367 of them shop there as soon as it opens. Especially if it’s Sainsbury or Waitrose (but I’m secretly hoping for Netto or Lidl hahahaha!)