THE LEADER of the Green Party has hit out at the proposed £150million Worcester Woods development and said it would ‘hollow out’ the city centre.
Natalie Bennett made the comments during a visit to Worcester on Monday (February 15), when she spoke to independent shop owners as part of the party’s campaign launch for the city council elections in May.
Speaking to the Observer, Ms Bennett attacked the planned Worcester Woods out-of-town development claiming it will ‘destroy’ jobs in independent shops and described multinational companies as ‘parasites.’
She said: “We will very much support the small independent businesses.”
“We know that so many towns and cities have seen their town centres hollowed out by the big out-of-town centres.
“They encourage people to get in their cars, they encourage traffic and they talk about the jobs they create but how many jobs are they actually destroying if you lose those small independent businesses.
“And what you are losing are good jobs where people really feel part of the community, whereas alternatively the out-of-town centres usually use zero hours contracts, people are often on minimum wage with no real chance of advancement.
“There’s just not the kind of future of good quality jobs, good quality businesses and money going round and round in the city.
“These small businesses also support local accountants, use a local lawyer if they need to sort their lease out, if they need a new sign they’ll use a local sign writer and if they need new shelves they use a local carpenter.
“So you’ve got a rich economy of local businesses and if you go away from that towards the big multinationals, who very often we know don’t pay their fair share of taxes or don’t pay their staff well, they really are parasites and Worcester would be the poorer.”
Ms Bennett also said she is confident her party’s message will resonate with voters in the Faithful City.
“Worcester is a place where there are lots of issues which is really resonating with what the Green Party has to say,” she added.
“You’ve got a Council which is very finely balanced so even two Green councillors could well be in a position to push through some of the policies we’re keen on,” she added.
