For various reasons I have recently been staying in the
Lincolnshire town of Louth. In some ways Lincolnshire is about twenty years
behind the rest of the UK. It’s a rural
county with no major cities but many, widely scattered market towns. The main road and rail transport routes
bypass the county entirely.
For these reasons Louth retains its character as a farming
centre, rustic and unhurried. In 2012 the town was voted Britain’s Favourite
Market Town by viewers of the BBC’s Countryfile, beating celebrated beauty
spots including Ludlow, Perth and Stamford.
Markets are held in the town three days a week. Many of the town’s buildings clearly show
signs of their agricultural origins as wool merchants, seed dealers, maltings or the old corn
exchange. There is a working cattle market
in the town and many of the town pubs have good rustic names: The Brown Cow,
The Golden Fleece or The Miller’s Daughter.
The town centre is noted for the large number of independent
retailers. There are several family
businesses including bakers, green grocers, a large number of butchers, and a
specialist cheese shop. The lobby group, Keep Louth Special, attributes this to
the absence of a major supermarket in the town.
There is a small branch of Morrisons and a similarly sized Co-Op, but
the town is extremely unusual these days in not having a large supermarket
either in the town or on an edge-of-town site.
That state of equilibrium is about to be challenged. This week, East Lindsey District Council,
which owns the cattle market, has announced its intention to close the existing
facility and move to an out-of-town location.
They have invited sealed bids for the multi-acre site, and all of the
big four food retailers have declared an interest in acquiring the property.
Keep Louth Special, and many of the town’s existing traders
are girding their loins for battle and preparing to fight any application to
build a new supermarket. They claim that
a major supermarket in the town would be a disaster, forcing many local
businesses to close and irreversibly altering the character of the town.
But not everyone feels the same way. Many people would welcome a major retailer in
the town. They point out that most of
the town’s residents already travel the 25km to Grimsby to do their main food
shopping. They want to see the same
choice and low prices available closer to home.
The scene is set for a major planning battle.
My guess is the cattle market site will be sold and it will
be bought by one of the big four supermarkets.
Money talks, and the funds raised will allow the council to keep council
tax rises down. In a couple of years
there will be a supermarket on the site and most of the townsfolk will use
it. And what will be the impact on
Louth’s small retailers?
I would like to believe that the changes will only be
positive. Perhaps the presence of a
large supermarket will enhance the town as a retail destination. Maybe there will be a win win and the local
retailers will share in the increased size of the pie. But I doubt it.
I fear that many small businesses will be tilted into
deficit. I suspect that several existing
businesses will turn out to be surprisingly fragile and the arrival of a new
major competitor will prove to be the difference between survival and
closure. They will be replaced by
charity shops and discount stores and some will be boarded up for years. Shoppers will actually see choice and service
decline. There will be a net loss of
wealth to the town. Research shows that
a shockingly small percentage of money spent in a national supermarket stays
within the local economy. There will be
a loss of vigour in the town centre. Even
the district council will notice the difference in receipts from business rates.
It has already happened all over the county.
I am tempted to remember the words of Paul Weller. “The public gets what the public wants.” But I doubt if many people would actually choose the future that I have foretold. The trouble s that most people will take a short term view. They will look forward to lower prices, two-for-one offers and extra club card points. Probably it’s more accurate to say simply that as a society we
get the towns we deserve!
