Letters: Milford locals in New Forest ‘hope store bid rejected’

Readers of the Lymington Times will be fully aware of the controversial Tesco plans for Milford. Their coverage of this issue is very much valued by the Milford Community represented by the parish council and the 600 who have so far objected to this scheme on the NFDC planning website.

We are all hopeful that the NFDC planning committee will reject this totally inappropriate scheme when they meet in September. However I am amazed to read in the paper’s coverage on 25th July that the senior policy planner, apparently supports the scheme which he says is “considered a need” for the community and will “have no adverse impact on the existing shops in the village”.

He bases this view on “a retail impact assessment” which, (surprise, surprise), was commissioned and paid for by the applicant.

Why is it considered a “need” when just a five-minute walk away in the village we have two convenience stores (one of which, One Stop, is stocked by Tesco and only recently introduced a much needed post office service), a bakery, deli, butcher and vegetable shop – never mind the two newsagents? The damage a Tesco Express will do to these independent local businesses does not bare thinking about.

This naïve planning officer also seems to be ignoring the fact that this proposed store would be on an exceptionally busy and quite dangerous dead-end road without turning facilities and in a residential conservation area with little off-road parking. We hope that every member of the planning committee will visit the site in Milford before considering and then totally rejecting the blinkered views of their senior planning officer.

At the same time we would like to think that they will recommend the demolition of this eyesore building in what I repeat is now a listed conservation area and insist that the site be used, as was intended when the current owner acquired it three years ago, for residential purposes.

Howard Ray

Milford