Campaigners 'delighted' by lack of support for Williton supermarket plans (From Somerset County Gazette)

...And williton will continue to die

I'm sure there would've been a greater turnout, only loads of people had to traipse into another town to do their food shopping......oh well, as long as all the retired nimbys get to skype home to London about the quiet little village that's from another time, that's the main thing. I mean, god forbid someone with nothing but spare time and disposable income has to drive a couple of miles for some cream teas and nostalgia......

80 / 90% of villagers are against this? IS that out of the people who sit on the chamber of commerce along with residents of Bridge St who, it appears, are the only ones who have been asked about this by Love Williton? Their figures are not correct. There is a silent majority of Williton residents who want this development, and the silence is now breaking as LOCAL people are fed up with the outsiders who have moved here and are against any change in Williton! The tide will turn on this.

"Our own research shows that 80-90%" clearly giving stats like "80-90%" shows your method is unreliable. is it 80%? 83.5%? saying 80-90% reeks of being made up on the spot.

Fear of bringing more people and investment into williton is fueling this campaign.

williton needs a good store many pensioners have to go to minehead or taunton to go shopping not easy for many the spar shop is ok but limited and the co op well getting served is hard enough in there apart from the problems they cause unloading massive lorries ..on a double yellow line on a bend covering a crossing point ...god alone knows how they get away with that ,,,no the village defiantly needs this new development. although it would be nice to know what supermarket would be interested .

ProgressForWilliton wrote:
80 / 90% of villagers are against this? IS that out of the people who sit on the chamber of commerce along with residents of Bridge St who, it appears, are the only ones who have been asked about this by Love Williton? Their figures are not correct. There is a silent majority of Williton residents who want this development, and the silence is now breaking as LOCAL people are fed up with the outsiders who have moved here and are against any change in Williton! The tide will turn on this.

Progress, you know this just is not true. By now the majority of houses have been visited and the vast majority are against this development. Are you saying that unless you grew up in the village you are not entitled to have an opinion? (I have lived in Williton for over 20 years, do I qualify for an opinion yet?) I am sure that more than a few of your supporters have lived in the village for less time, yet you allow them to have their opinion. At the moment, Williton is progressing. If you add up the number of people actually employed within Williton, it will be approaching 1000, out of a total population of 2700. These jobs include administrative, retail, trade, transport, manufacturing, services, hospitality, NHS, care etc. The main problem with the proposed development is the scale. Just take a look at the site on google earth, it would swamp the present shopping centre. The promise of 150 new jobs is only a prediction, made by a developer dangling a carrot of many promises that cannot be guaranteed. The Morrison’s in Minehead that is twice the size of the proposed supermarket only employs 75 people. If you scale this down to a store half the size, only around 40 jobs will be created by the supermarket. This means that the five other small units will have to employ 110 people between them. Gliddon’s will have at least one of these units, presumably the current staff will be employed there. The developer has said that he has had interest from an optician – 4 staff at the most? A book shop? It wouldn’t be a Waterstones, more like a specialist shop run by an enthusiast who would run it on their own. A bakery? next to a supermarket? How many bakers are there in Minehead since the supermarkets were built? Glenmore’s have a tiny retail outlet on the Parade, but the bakery itself is in Williton. Ofcourse, Williton did used to have a proper bakery, which by the way I used practically every day, but it did not survive. The developer has argued that this site is ideal because of its central location, and in his last press release suggested that the growth on the industrial estate (eg computer shop, carpet shop etc) is “out of town”. However, if you were walk to either of these shops from the Townsend area which is the core residential area of the village, they are closer than Fore Street. Please don’t be blinded by the developer’s glittery carrot, it is not the right thing for Williton at the moment. A mixed residential/small retail units would progress Williton in a manageable scale. Perhaps Magna could develop a number of one or two bedroomed houses or flats to help the local youngsters get a place of their own. Meanwhile, the developer will be enjoying his retirement in the sun.