Bohemia Village Voice

Site plan of Asdas proposed new store.

Supermarket giant ASDA held an exhibition at St Matthew’s Church Hall on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th June, showcasing plans for a new store to be built in nearby Silverhill. According to Francis Mallinson of PR firm Dialogue, some 210 people visited the exhibition over the two days, and leaflets have been dropped through 5,000 local letterboxes. Moreover, the company claims that something in excess of 70 per cent of local people are in favour of the proposed scheme.
The new store would be built on the site now occupied by Marshall Tufflex, whose premises would move to the Churchfields industrial estate. Free parking for 300 cars beside the new supermarket would apparently be available to anyone shopping in the existing Silverhill shopping parade, not just the ASDA store.
At 35,000 square feet, the store would also be the smallest ASDA supermarket in the country, and slightly smaller than Morrisons in Queen’s Road. But this would still require an investment of £25 million, which we assume would be recovered in part by the construction of 22 new flats on the far side of the car park. A group of three new shops would also be included in the development plan.
Inevitably, it seems that there will be some collateral damage to the neighbourhood, as a row of shops and flats running away from the traffic lights along the western side of Battle Road is likely to be demolished to allow space for landscaping at the entrance to the proposed supermarket site.
The exhibition was reasonably well attended when the Voice went to view it, with fifteen or so members of the public poring over plans, or trying to guess the value of the contents of a basket of groceries, or scribbling down their opinions on the forms provided. Their duty to consult the public having thus been fulfilled, ASDA will submit a planning application to Hastings Council next month. Assuming this is approved, Marshall Tufflex would then have between six and eight months to relocate to their new Churchfields site, whereupon building work will begin on the ASDA store and accompanying developments, with the new store opening by late next year.
Reactions from shopkeepers in Bohemia who might be affected by the new store have been surprisingly upbeat. Arun Thiva of High Spirits newsagent’s on London Road says, ‘The new ASDA won’t affect our business. The arrival of Tesco in Silverhill didn’t change our trade. In fact, judging from previous experience, I expect the new store to bring more trade into the area.’
Michael Hitchings of Little Mill Bakery in the same London Road parade is also unruffled by the prospect of competition from the retailing giant. ‘We deal with higher-quality breads. Our customers don’t want supermarket rubbish. They come to us because they know the bread will be fresh and taste good. So I don’t think ASDA’s going to affect us.’
Stan Steadman at Bloom’s Pharmacy on Bohemia Road told a similar story. ‘Supermarkets tend not to affect us. You can’t beat them on price, but we offer a better service. I don’t know if the new ASDA will have a pharmacy, but I’m not worried about it.’
Alan Derosa, manager at Alldays further along Bohemia Road, is more circumspect about the coming presence of a store that would surely be competing item for item with his minimarket. ‘I guess it could affect our business,’ he says, ‘though it’s likely to hit the Silverhill [Co-op] store before us.’
This was the one cautionary note sounded in the various conversations we’ve had on the subject of the proposed ASDA store. With more than 300 new jobs also being mooted, the planned development would seem to be an out-and-out good-news story. Far be it from us to stir the anti-corporate pot, but are there no dissenting voices to be heard? We’d love to know what our readers think, one way or the other.