Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to express my, and many of the local Businesses and Residents’, total opposition to the building of a supermarket on the Cintel Site.

The Cintel Site, despite being a light industrial site, is surrounded by residential housing and has only minor roads supporting the infrastructure. This unnecessary development would have a massive impact on the lives of those residents close to the site and a major impact on Ware Town as a whole.

Asda propose an immense store, impacting every boundary of the site, even though now not proposing a 24 hour store, they I am sure would like one!  This would result in constant noise and disturbance from shoppers, shopping trolleys, cars and lorries with refrigeration units. It would have a huge detrimental effect on the properties and families living around the site and clearly illustrates the contempt that Asda has for local people. On top of that is the impact this store would have on Watton Road, which is only a B road and would be the only access point for customers and deliveries to the store. Watton Road is already overloaded during rush hour, often nose to tail, it could not cope with the projected 30,000 shoppers arriving by car every week, the (15-18) lorry deliveries and (undetermined) internet shopping deliveries.

My next concern is the impact Asda would have on the High Street. As an edge of town development we would get the worse sort of store. Not only would it take trade away from the High Street, it would be too far from the principal shopping area, which is 500m away, to ensure that those people who do visit the store walk into town to shop, escpecially if the access into the store is via a glass travellator from the underground car park.

In addition Asda have a history of franchising out areas of their store to dry cleaners, post offices, opticians, chemists, coffee shops and it will no doubt have a restaurant as well as their own household produce and George branded clothing, this would further pressure business in the High Street. There is sufficient height in the proposed building to insert a mezzanine floor in the future and almost double their trading floor space. Asda have told the Residents Committee that they will not be applying for permission in the future to insert such a floor. If that is the case, why are they proposing to build such a large store?

Remember Asda, or should I say Walmart, is the biggest retailer in the World. It has a questionable relationship with the Unions in the UK due to their employment practices and would not, as their literature leads us to believe, be generating 400 full time jobs in the store. Most of these jobs would be low quality part time jobs. However, the people currently employed on the Cintel Site will certainly lose their jobs.

The Cintel site does need developing but it can be put to far better use than high volume low cost housing or a supermarket. How about a sustainable development for start up or commercial businesses much on the same design as The Maltings in Stansted Abbotts? This would bring quality full time employment to Ware. This would also give the area the benefits from something it doesn’t have and would bring people from neighbouring towns and their money into Ware rather than into the coffers of a multinational chain. Asda has only one interest in Ware, that is gaining market share over Tesco’s, it has no concern with the town or its inhabitants.

People will always say they want more choice if asked, but at what cost? Ware High Street is a busy, varied shopping experience, it has taken generations to develop and will be rapidly destroyed if Asda get their way. Then we will no longer have the choice to shop along the High Street – No to Asda in Ware!