cl

bemusED, I am certainly bemused by your view that people living on Chesterfield/Ashbourne Grove are lucky to do so, and therefore should essentially just live with it. Most people have either been in these streets for many years and/or inherited homes through family, or have more recently already paid a premium to move into them, and all have every right to raise their concerns/objections, rather than putting up with it because they are ?lucky?. In proposing a development where they extend a premises to house an extremely popular shop, take an existing car park away, and add 8 residential units without parking provision of their own, on a street that is already extremely congested and hard enough to park on, the populace in the immediate vicinity have not been considered. Not all of this needs to be done - a middle ground could be sought. As for your point that no other retail tenant would take this plot on as it is, please refer to James Barber?s earlier post on this string - ?I'm also clear that Waitrose would like the site as is without the extension - and I've spoken at length to them about options.? And Im not sure I agree with your point about deliveries. The shop-floor is being extended (ie, more products to sell), and sells far more perishables than Iceland (frozen goods) so I think it is absolutely reasonable to assume that it will therefore need more frequent deliveries. Furthermore, the proposed schedule shows they will be taking place much earlier than Iceland. I support a thriving LL with good businesses on it ? it is the heart of the area and one of its major attractions. By all means lets have an M&S and Waitrose, but lets just ensure that development plans are reasonable and sensitive to the local area and its residents.

As a resident of Chesterfield Grove, I have no objection to the principle of an M&S coming to the area, and can see that it could have some benefits. BUT there has to be balance and the population of the surrounding area needs to be considered. Having read the proposal in detail, it is quite obvious that the real effect on the immediate locality is not adequately addressed, no doubt in an effort to push it through. Someone made a comment that parking difficulties are not a good reason to stop popular shops coming to LL. But I would argue that the issue here is not M&S in its own right, but the combination of the new (very popular, and enlargened) shop, the current car park being taken away, and the 8 new flats without parking that taken TOGETHER makes this a depressing prospect for residents in the immediate vicinity. I question whether all of these things are necessary. Whilst it is easy for those who do not live on these roads to be flippant about the impact, for those that do these issues are very real.