Letter from NJW Roe

Dear Sir,

Re: Sainsbury’s Dorridge

Sainsbury’s must be congratulated on their recent consultative leaflet for the proposed development on the Forest Court site. The idea of placing the store at ground level with the car park on the roof is inspirational and provides an acceptably low profile. A big improvement.

However the size of the suggested store is still way too large,
very similar to Sainsbury’s town size store in Solihull centre. Interestingly of those who responded to the question of preferred size in the Sainsbury’s questionnaire, 45% wanted a store similar to Tesco, Knowle whilst only 29% considered something of the size of the Solihull store desirable. Obviously Sainsbury’s will be pushing for the largest store to cover the largest catchment area that they can, size is profit! Does our village deserve this?

The dual carriageway on Station Road is shown as a single roadway despite their survey results indicating a majority of residents being in favour of its retention. This response was from people who live in Dorridge, use the road, know the road and its traffic and should be listened to. Reducing to a single carriageway poses problems with the Poplar Road junction, parked delivery vehicles and creates yet another dangerous pedestrian crossing adjacent to a junction. Agreed the present layout encourages excessive speed, but this is the result of poor design which surely can be resolved.

Whilst having a gripe, I note from the pamphlet that there has been no solution to the highly questionable route for the delivery vehicles, they will still thunder through Knowle village and along narrow Station Road into Dorridge. Pity the poor pedestrians and cyclists. How much will this devalue adjacent properties?

Anyhow, well done Sainsbury’s, they have “tried something different” - it’s far from perfect, but perhaps they are genuinely attempting to meet the aspirations of Dorridge residents; as their brochure states “we are now in a position to re-consult with the community”. Let us hope that this is genuinely the case.

Yours faithfully,

N. J. W. Roe