So happy to read of development's defeat

18/ 4/2008

I MOVED away from the area several years ago, and have returned for a visit.

I was very happy to read on the Metro News front page that the long-debated redevelopment of The Square in Hale Barns has finally been turned down.

I worked at the Co-op supermarket in The Square for several years before I left, and always felt that the plans would be detrimental to the area and entirely unnecessary.

The Co-op store on the site is a successful one, which seems to meet the needs of the local area very well.

All the staff who worked there had (and, I expect, continue to have) great personal relationships with many of the customers.

The other tenants of the Square seemed to do equally good business.

No-one I ever spoke to in the store or elsewhere in Hale Barns was in favour of knocking down the existing site to build a giant, impersonal hypermarket.

I can’t think who would have been, except the hypermarket’s owners.

I’m happy the correct decision has been made in the end, and I’m sure that next time I come back for a visit, the stores in the Square will still be prospering and the area will be all the better for it.

ADAM WILKINSON

Formerly of Hale (now resident in Vancouver, Canada)