THE FOUNDER of a major High Street baby store has warned it could pull out of Worcester should controversial plans for the Worcester Woods retail park be given the green light.
Laura Tenison admitted JoJo Maman Bebe could close its CrownGate store in a letter to planning chiefs at Worcester City Council which has been seen by the Observer.
She labelled the proposals for vast 396,175sq ft site as ‘commercial suicide’ and said should the development be given the thumbs up it was ‘highly likely’ the well-known brand would shut up shop in the city.
Proposals for the landmark development south of Newtown Road by the Worcestershire Royal Hospital have already won support from retail giants such as John Lewis, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Next at Home who have all expressed an interest in moving to the site.
Site owners Land Securities hope the development will create a new ‘home and lifestyle’ destination offering shoppers in Worcester a comprehensive range of goods for the home and garden.
“This will complement the existing retail choice in Worcester and mean local shoppers no longer need to travel elsewhere to meet their needs,” they said.
But the proposals were slammed by Miss Tenison who said she was ‘horrified’ to hear of the plans during a visit to the Worcester store.
“In my opinion the killing off of city centre shopping is a total travesty and councils have been making foolish decisions on planning permission for years,” she said.
“We have always concentrated on city and town centre shopping; regenerating local high streets. In many cases where we have opened, others have followed.
“We opened in Worcester because we felt that we should lead the way and are encouraging other good retailers to the city centre – we have achieved this in many places.”
“However, it performs worse than most of our cathedral city and county town stores.
“This is basically down to poor town planning, expensive parking and lack of enthusiasm for destination shopping in the city.
Miss Tenison’s impassioned plea to planning chiefs claimed Worcester was an ‘amazing city’ and she urged them not to ‘ruin it’.
“If you let this out of town shopping centre go ahead you will look very silly in a few years to come, but in the short term you will totally kill off the city centre – leaving an already pretty depressed high street to get worse and worse.
“An out of town development is commercial suicide for all of us and it is likely that we will have to pull out of Worcester in the future,” she added.
www.worcesterwoodsretail.co.uk for more details about the plans.
