Traders object to more grocery shopping at Crescent Link

We read on Wednesday that some of our councillors think that opponents to thousands of jobs on the Crescent link must be faced down. We are sad to see this . As someone who has nothing but respect for our councillors we have to say they do appear to have completely missed the point of our objections. No one is against jobs coming to the town. In fact our spokesman is on record in the article on Wednesday saying we are not against the multiples coming to the city. What we are against, and all of the retailers Waterside and City side are saying, is we do not want Asda and Sainsburys on the Crescent Link.

Lets look at the reasons given for going to the Crescent Link.

Sainsburys say they want to attract business the city is losing out on but not effect their city side shop. Are they really suggesting no one from the Waterside shops on the Strand Road and if they do, those shoppers will continue to do so and not switch to the Crescent Link. I think not. As the turnover drops on the Strand Road, so to will the hours available for the workers.

Asda says too much business is leaking out of the city. They say we are travelling to Strabane to shop in Asda. So if they stop this leakage to Strabane that shop can reduce its workforce and the economic blackspot of N Ireland can lay off more people. A good win for Strabane, I think not.

Councillors Gallagher and Fleming want to see more completion and value for money. This sounds good until you think about other strong industries in the city from the recent past. The bread and shirt industry.

Bread is now possibly a little cheaper than it was in the past. However, we have lost Milanda bakery, Sunblest Bakery and Stevensons Bakeries to achieve this, with the loss of over 1000 jobs. Our shirt industry, with nearly 10,000 workers has gone, but I think our shirts are cheaper. So you need to be careful that competition is fair.

The retailers in this town have no problem with competition or value for money. However who is getting value for money? It's not Derry City Council. Asda said in their own words their rates will be 100000 for 78000 sq feet or approximately 1.30 per sq foot. Retailers in the city centre and Waterside can pay anything from 15 to 20 per sq foot. This means at its high rate Derry City Council would stand to raise 1,500,000 or more than one and a half MILLION pounds more if they charge Asda the same as independent retailers.

The developers seem to say it is essential to have grocery shops on their site to make it work. Why is that ?

Its because they bring people to the site and by implication take them from somewhere else.

All the councillors say they want to help the city centre retailers (city side and waterside ) our suggestion is to bring these retailers into the centre. There are sites on both sides of the river. By bringing major retailers into the centre of the city this would bring competition as desired by all ,increased rates to the Council and immediately regenerate the town centre.

We find it interesting that over two hundred retailers, employing several thousand staff and paying millions of pounds in rates to the council, think the Crescent link is the wrong place for grocery shops to regenerate the city centre, but our councillors don't. Most of the business academics and the whole of the United Kingdom and Ireland are trying to stop the multiples killing town centres but our councillors finally unite on a rare occasion to do the opposite. Strange and disappointing.

Signed of behalf of City Traders Forum