Dear Philippa,

 

After our local district council dished out planning consent to Lidl and Aldi to build supermarkets, both within a few hundred yards of existing Netto and Morrison’s stores, it continued to press on with a hugely unpopular proposal to to flog a large car park (itself unpopular thanks to the high charges fixed by the council) for a cool £5m to accommodate yet another supermarket. Local rumour had it that the council had been in cahoots with Sainsbury’s, strongly denied by the council. That’s five supermarkets for a population of about fifteen thousand.

The aspiration is for Malton to become a regional, even national shopping destination. I can see it now – people in Bolton waking up on a Saturday morning and saying, “What shall we do today? I know, let’s go shopping in Malton.” Then jumping in their cars and making a two hundred mile round trip, with petrol at six quid a gallon, to do the weekly shop in a small market town they’ve never heard of, avoiding York and Harrogate, which they have, in their excitement to reach us.

 

Now, Malton is a splendid place where I shop every day, seldom feeling the need to go to York or Harrogate, except to buy out of the way items such as a new wig, or a pair of spats, but we should try to stay real. Anyway, recent events have been interesting. Lidl opened, and appears to be struggling, as does Netto judging by their car parks; Aldi has announced that it will not now proceed with its plan. And, here’s the kicker, Sainsbury’s have withdrawn its interest in the car park scheme, which the council was of course unaware of, but revealed that it is exploring another possible council-owned site elsewhere in the town. We await unconvincing denials.

 

This situation is not unique to Malton. East Hertfordshire District Council is proposing to sell off its car parks in Bishop’s Stortford, a larger and more prosperous town than Malton, for an even cooler£100m to enable a retail development at the heart of which will be – a supermarket. Again, there is fierce local opposition from existing retailers and people who live and work in the town because they will have nowhere to park, and anyway they think they’ve got enough supermarkets.

But the council’s real problem is coming from its own employees at its headquarters, which are located in the town. It seems that council workers, who by “custom and practice” are allowed to park free in the council car parks that are slated for sale and will have to make alternative, expensive arrangements. It looks like the pen pushers and blotter jotters may have more clout than the rate-payers, and suggestions are being made that they may be able to park free under a deal with the developer. Things are explosive among the townsfolk who had hitherto been unaware of this valuable perquisite available only civil servants.

 

Back to Malton. I don’t know what will happen. I predicted the withdrawal of Aldi, but not that of Sainsbury’s. Netto will not close, although it is hardly thriving, because it is to be remodelled as a full blown Asda (who own it), but I predict that Lidl will. As for Sainsbury’s, who knows? But I think we may keep our car park.

 

Best wishes,

 

Howard