14th January 2008

Dear Editor.

It is desperately sad to hear that the non food side of Co-op department
stores in Castle House and Middlewood Road Hillsborough ("End in Store
for the Co-Op" The Star January 11th 2008) are to close along with the loss of 130 jobs. It is however unbelievable that the chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce, the Council's cabinet member for economic regeneration and the Hillsborough member of parliament are saying they did not see this coming. It is their economic policies that have got us in the mess.

On Monday 7th January the Planning Board gave the go ahead to a
massive Tesco mega store with 865 car park spaces just off the Wicker. The millions spent on the northern inner relief road have been a publicly funded gift to this retail giant. The effect of the store on Sheffield will be
similar to the effect that Meadowhall had on City Centre shops.
queezed between the Tesco megastore and the swanky New Retail Quarter, businesses like the Co-op and the Markets will be unable to compete and will fold. The people who have moved into the city centre because they wish to live and work within the city will have lost out. Land prices and rents will be pushed up and people forced out. The vitality and
distinctiveness of what remains of a human scaled city centre will be
further damaged.

What a pity that the loss of employment, damage to the local economy,
the social costs falling on the most vulnerable, the rising health cost
of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and loss of our heritage
were not properly taken into account by the politicians at that
important planning Board. LibDem and Labour councillors who last year
stopped a new Tesco Store on Commonside, in Broomhill said that the Saville Street Supermarket needed this huge car park in order to ensure this 24 hour seven-day-a-week business investment thrived.

Supermarket chains and developers have become very powerful operators in the city and our lives. Sheffield is rapidly becoming a "Clone City"
with the wealth spent in local shops draining away from our communities.
Just where will it stop if the politicians we put into power cannot
stand up to these faceless monopolies and say no?

The Green Party will continue to support and protect a local economy,
thriving communities and the environment. We say "No" to Sheffield becoming a clone city and challenge the Co-op to reconsider its support for New Labour.

Yours Sincerely.

Green Party Councillor for Central Ward Bernard Little.