Westwood Post Office and Shop

I just thought that I should remind people that the Westwood shop is under new management. A planning application has been submitted, which the Parish Council and residents support, to extend the shop. The extension will mean that the shop will be able to offer more goods and this will also help to keep prices low. The shop belongs to a Cost Cutter network and the benefits are that goods may be priced at supermarket levels.

The shop is open from 7am till 9pm, Monday till Saturday, and 8am till 8pm Sunday. Freshford residents could easily find these times convenient, particularly at weekends when our local shop closes at midday. There are also many residents who can't use the Freshford shop in the week as they get home too late. Also remember that Sainsbury's supermarket closes at 8pm during the week and 4pm on Sundays.

Update: the planning application has been approved. The shop will be extended into the forecourt area.

The building will look like this - with a pantile roof and stone-rendered walls.  It will be light and airy.  It will be very well insulated and ventilated so that there should be no need for heating or air conditioning. 

Videos of the location of the propsed Freshford village community shop can be viewed here: Shop Location Video Views Although this has been posted before I am posting the link again for ease of access.

I have also noted that the proposed ash tree planting may cause undesirable shade. The Google map used to provide links to the video films quite clearly shows shade and if large trees were to be planted that shade would affect the car park and access land to the children's playground. At present there are no trees adjoining the section of wall.

I can't see any need for the trees because as can be observed from the video films the location of the proposed community shop is not visible from any of the viewpoints unless one was standing at the top of Galleries field (which is private land anyway) or on the footpath by The Glebe. The proposed trees would reduce the sunny aspect close to the Memorial Hall and children's playground and possibly encourage moss and make the ground slippery. Why not have some mixed hedging or smaller trees?

The  Esso Service station on the A36 will still be open during the road closure but will have a very difficult time with the road being closed.  I intend to only buy my fuel there, even if its inconvenient, whilst the A36 is closed.  I will also make sure that I also make a point of doing some shopping there.

We all need to support local services as much as possible -the posible closure of the fuel station is very real. I believe that we can all help to keep it open. Local supermarkets can afford to lose our custom for several weeks but in a time when fuel stations are becoming even fewer we can't afford to lose this one.

Apparently according to B&NES Planning Freshford Village Memorial Hall is not in Freshford. 

 Apparently some councillors at the meeting of the Development Control Committee in Bath yesterday were not able to view my video films of every conceiveable place from which to view the proposed site of our new community shop. Even though a DVD copy of the videos was sent to B&NES Planning.

So I must presume that my evidence, which is undeniable, that the existing Freshford Memorial Hall is not or hardly visible (and the location of the proposed shop) from any location other than almost directly in front of it was not allowed to be viewed by the committee members. And did those that are not in favour of the proposal actually go on a site visit?  If they did I wouldn't have thought they would have worn suitable footware to view the site from the footpaths.

Perhaps I should have emailed the committee members with the link to this website or post them a copy of the videos on DVD.

I shall also post a DVD containing the ten videos to Planning.

I have published my comments on the planning application below:

Although a Wilsthire resident I live closer to Freshford village centre than to Westwood. To save fuel I would prefer to shop in Freshford as it is only a short walk away. The proposed application does provide parking for those who need to do more shopping and who are dropping off or collecting children from the school. This will reduce the congestion along Freshford Lane.  As the proposed shop is located adjoining the Freshford Memorial Hall and is close to a children's playground the shop will foster community relations and reduce the risk to children from traffic. I don't think that the location  of the shop would detract from the appearance of the neighbourhood.

Where ever the proposed village shop needs to be, it does need to be large enough to provide the range of goods that we need and at reasonable prices. The combined shop and post office at Winsley is a good example.

I am concerned that there should always be a range of fresh vegetables available. There is a danger that because there is not much profit on fresh produce this part of the produce for sale will be neglected and disappointed shoppers will just go to Bradford On Avon. 

One of the great things about supermarkets are that it is unusual to not to be able to buy what you need, whatever the time of day. And often, whatever the time of day there are usually bargains.