| I live just outside Ealing, but regularly use the local shops in Northfield Ave, South Ealing Road and Pitshanger – Hook & Cleaver, Blue Ocean, Cheddar Deli, Hynes Optician, Charlie’s Fruit Bowl, Harrisons Deli, dry cleaners, barbers etc. But no longer, if Ealing council deliver on their threat to remove “stop & shop” parking spaces. I, and most others, will drive further to a major supermarket, and all these local shops will be closed within a year. Tesco’s are much cheaper, so it’s a win-win scenario, except for the local economy and the environment. Once these shops have gone, they will never come back – we will look at the wasteland of our local neighbourhoods with their once-thriving shops and rue the short-sighted policies of local government driven by dogma, and certainly not by any idea of public service to the people who elected them. Meanwhile Tesco, Sainsbury etc. are rubbing their hands with glee! |