Shirley takes another step to becoming 'Supermarket Capital'

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 1st Jul 2005

At a specially convened cabinet meeting last night, Solihull Conservative council cabinet voted to take Shirley Town Centre one step closer to becoming the 'Supermarket capital of the West Midlands'

Despite strongly worded presentations from local residents and Lib Dem councillor Howard Allen, the Conservative Solihull Cabinet voted to approve a recommendation from officers that Shirley Advance had met the 11 key elements of their agreement brief with Solihull Council. The only councillor opposing the motion was Norman Davies, Lib Dem leader, who was not allowed to vote.

Richard Wise, speaking for residents' group 'Keep Shirley Alive' said the Shirley Advance proposal would mean independent traders would wither away and parkland disappear. 'It's not regeneration: it's annexation by big business' he said.

Commenting on the conduct of the meeting spokesman against Rod Pitham added "politicians are thick-skinned but last night they were totally impervious and would not listen to opinions other than their own or of their officers even from those experienced in local government and development. Some members did not even understand the issues that they were being asked to resolve."

A surprising last minute bid came from Tesco, which submitted a plan which would involve no loss of parkland and no additional supermarkets, as the existing Tesco site on the Shirley / Hall Green boundary would be closed and be made available for housing removing the need to build apartments on Shirley Park.

Local MP Lorely Burt who attended the meeting said 'The Council must look seriously at this proposal from Tesco. The Council should look to obtain best consideration from all its assets. The revelation from Tesco that they were excluded from any bidding process by Shirley Advance calls into question the decision made by Solihull Council earlier this year when they decided upon a preferred foodstore operator. Tory led Solihull Council are still keeping the name of their preferred superstore operator a secret from the public but what we do know is it is not Tesco!

'Again this council are not listening to local people or the local shopkeepers who think the Shirley Advance proposal is too big, takes away their parkland and they simply don't want another superstore on the Stratford Road.

'This looks set to turn into another Tudor Grange fiasco' Lorely added.