Green Party

Corner shops should get better protection from their local councils under strengthened planning powers, a new report has said.

On Thursday one of the authors will be visiting Norwich to explain how the report, produced for Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, also applies across the country. The report ‘Cornered Shops’, (1) says corner shops are in decline and should get protected status in local, regional and national planning policies. It says the move by major supermarkets into ‘local format’ stores is putting extra pressure on corner shops on high streets. It also calls for more to be done to prevent essential local shops, such as butchers and greengrocers, being turned into outlets like cafes and betting shops.

Campaigning for the Norwich City Council elections next month, the Green Party is calling for more support for the local economy, partly through the ‘Buy Local’ network (2). This not only encourages Norwich people to seek out locally produced goods and services but also encourages local businesses to sign up others as suppliers.

Jenny Jones, a Green Party member of the London Assembly, is deputy chair of its planning and housing committee which produced the report. She said:

“People in residential areas need local shops that provide essential services that they can walk to. The planning system needs to change to empower councils to take back control of their high streets and protect local shops from further decline.”

At 11:00 on Thursday, (August 19th), members of the media are invited to join Jenny as she visits Colman Road in Norwich where a new 400sqm mini-supermarket is being built alongside the exisiting parade of largely independent smaller shops.

She will meet Claire Stephenson, who is leading the Green Party local election campaign in Norwich and Nigel Dowdney, a director of the ‘Buy Local’ network in Norfolk.

The new store development at Colman Road was approved as being of a size which complies with policy guidelines. But it was at first turned down by local planners, partly on the grounds that it would have a negative impact on the vitality and viability of existing retail stores. Claire Stephenson pointed out to the planners that the fourteen neighbouring shops already include ‘corner’ shops, a bakery, a newsagent and a pharmacy and that some shops in the group are currently vacant. She said:

“Local people have been concerned by the onward march of supermarkets in their neighbourhoods. It is valuable for us to have Jenny Jones’ insights based on the work she’s done in London. Her report warns that if these retail trends continue, we could see the total eradication of small shops as early as 2015. We don’t want that to happen here in Norwich.”

Nigel Dowdney said:

“Independent retailers in the convenience store sector are at the heart of their communities and offer diversity, imagination and choice to their customers. The attempts by the multiples to force us out of the sector should be resisted by all means possible in order to avoid local monopolies - there are sixteen Tesco stores in Norwich and more on the way - to strengthen our communities and support the local economy.”

Norwich councillors tried repeatedly to prevent a Tesco supermarket opening opposite existing smaller shops on Unthank Road, but were ultimately unsuccessful and the store is now trading. Should the Greens become the largest party at City Hall after the election, they will want to do more to ensure that the council considers the impact of new supermarket applications on local shopping centres and that major shopping developments include the right mix of large and small units.

Pradip Depala is the owner of Colman News. He said:

“There should be more help for small businesses from the council and the government, and new shops shouldn't be opened on the same parade as similar shops which already sell the same products.”

After the visit to Colman Road, Jenny Jones will join Norwich Green Party candidates and supporters canvassing nearby in University Ward between 12:00 and 13:00.

NOTES:

1. Cornered Shops: London's small shops and the planning system PDF
2. www.buylocalnorfolk.org.uk

Jenny Jones is a former chair of the Green Party and former Deputy Mayor of London. She has been a member of the London Assembly since 2000 and was elected as the first Green member on Southwark Council in 2006. In the previous mayoral administration Jenny was the chair of ‘London Food’, the Mayor’s road safety ambassador, and the Mayor’s green transport adviser.

An ‘election special’ edition of Norwich Green Party’s Greenview newspaper is available online at www.norwichgreenparty.org offering more background to manifesto proposals.

The full manifesto is also available at http://www.norwichgreenparty.org

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