I was shocked to hear last Saturday from a friend that the Bishop Centre in Taplow is due to close at the end of January 2012 to be replaced by a giant Tesco.
I don’t think that I am wrong to say that this is not the first time that a supermarket tried to get planning permission to build yet another supermarket on this side of Maidenhead. If my memory serve me right, I think that the site of the Norfolk House Hotel and the school next door have been earmarked for a supermarket before as did the field next to the Volkswagen dealership next to Maidenhead bridge. Those applications obviously failed. Not to worry, they have decided to try somewhere else. The somewhere else is the Bishop centre.
Shock horror, another supermarket on my doorstep when we already have a Sainsbury’s in Taplow, another one in Maidenhead, two Tesco in Burnham, a giant Tesco and Asda in Slough, a Tesco in Maidenhead, several other local supermarket in Maidenhead and a soon to be Lidl in Maidenhead. Not to be left behind, rumour has it that Sainsbury’s are planning to increase the size of the Taplow store to match the planned Taplow Tesco…
Am I the only person around to think that this is enough? How many more supermarkets do we need?
Please don’t take me wrong, I have nothing personal against Sainsbury, Tesco or any other large supermarket chain. However, I do have something against planners who seem to allow just about anything those large companies want to do and this to the detriment of the small independent retailer.
I have started a Facebook page www.facebook.com/notescointaplow please join. I created this page on Sunday and as of tonight have already 96 followers. The power of the internet!
I will also post here the developing story about this campaign.
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