What the ASDA Stirchley site could be…?

Here’s a quick sketch of what the site could be based on my ideas in the previous post and some comments on twitter. Should have a children’s play area too somewhere:

I’m emailing local councillors to see if there is the will and the cash in the local council to be able to do this sort of thing, even in phases. There is some ‘Section 106’ money from the TESCO agreement to pay for relocation of the indoor bowls and I hope there is some money in sport and leisure, open spaces, heritage budgets etc…

Late night thoughts about ASDA stirchley

It’s been a thought provoking couple of days what with the well-attended Stirchley Neighbourhood Forum all about the possible ASDA in Stirchley, and yesterday an enlightening meeting with Joe from Birmingham Friends or the Earth. The neighbourhood forum showed me that Stirchley has plenty of people in both camps – many for but also many against, and also that negative campaigning can lead to negative reactions from others, and possibly make the campaign easier to dismiss. In my meeting with Joe he encouraged us to campaign as positively as possible for exactly this reason, and to think about pulling together ideas for an alternative use for the site. This is something I’ve been thinking about anyway, so late last night I jotted down these ideas which I think could all happen easily on the site and would bring far more positives to Stirchley than the ASDA proposal. Here they are in unedited bullet form:

Swimming pool, indoor bowls, gym.
200 parking spaces
Fordhouse lane vehicle entrance
Pershore road pedestrian/cycle entrance
Cycle linkage from Rea valley route to Village
Permanent village square on the high street (where Stirchley carpets/mayfield road are now)
Weekly food/craft market
No loss of high st parking, and there could even be a small ‘high street car park’ in front of the square, increasing parking in Stirchley.
Chapel as visitor centre/rea valley heritage centre/ public toilets.
Green space next to river – community garden/orchard or football pitch?
Much easier to get to without car (no shopping), therefore less impact on traffic.
Fits with current centro initiative.

I’d welcome any comments and addition to these ideas, as well as alternatives. If anyone has any drawing/design skills and could sketch this kind of thing up, please get in touch on a comment or tom@loafonline.co.uk

End of week twelve

Didn’t spend much this week, party because we were away all week at a wedding and were fed and watered for most of that.

Money – £40.66
Time – about 10 minutes

End of week eleven

Another averagish week:

Money – £65.19
Time spent – 25 minutes.

End of week ten

Phew, back to a more normal spend this week – here’s what we spent:

Money – £46.56.

Time – about 30 minutes spent shopping.

It’s definitely becoming easier to avoid supermarkets now as it’s just become part of the routine. You do have to get used to paying slightly over the odds for things in local shops, and you also have to be more aware of what’s actually in your store cupboard, so that if you see something you need you can get it, rather than make a special trip when you really do need it and when the local shop probably won’t have it. Also re-discovered, although I was doing ‘Loaf’ shopping at the time, that Nima delicatessen in Moseley has a fantastic range of ingredients and will probably get me out of a scrape many times in the future, i just wish I lived a bit closer to it.

ASDA Stirchley

As I reported a couple of weeks ago, ASDA are planning to build a huge store in Stirchley, very close to the TESCO development that has already been given planning permission. They did a public consultation exercise recently, and have just put out a press release that Dave Harte has put up onto his Posterous, claiming some impressive statistics of support amongst the people that filled out the feedback cards. As I wasn’t invited to fill out a feedback card at the event by any of the 5 ASDA staff that I spoke to, I thought I’d put up a quick poll here to see if their impressive statistics ring true, and to see how you guys feel about the ASDA development. So you can make an informed decision, Stirchley Happenings posted online the entirety of the literature that was available at the consultation (click here). Now go forth and vote (please don’t vote unless you actually live/work in South Brum or are otherwise connected to Stirchley)…

There are a few local folks trying to set up a public meeting about this issue, and there’ll probably be a website up soon too – check back here for any news on that front or follow @loafonline on twitter.

End of week nine

Lots of food spending this month – our bill to the food co-op coincided with our milk delivery invoice (we seem to be buying more and more stuff from the milk man now) and  a weekend away with the lads (lots of meat was bought from Rossiters!). Here’s what we spent

Money – £220.03

Time – around 50 minutes (3 short shopping trips)

Average weekly spend per person so far: £39.46 (£78.92 combined)

End of week eight

Not an awful lot to say about that week, but we spent:

Money – £46.03

Time – about 25 minutes

Lots of bills coming next week…!

ASDA coming to Stirchley too?!?

ASDA want to tell you about their plans for a store in Stirchley. If you want to hear it or give them a piece of your mind, deets are below 😉

End of week seven

Apologies for the brief hiatus on the blog, we took 3 weeks off blogging due to a holiday in Morocco, i’ll try and put some food pics up on here soon from the trip. Meanwhile this is what we spent last week, our first full week back in blighty.

Money – £34.73
Time – about 15 minutes spent shopping

Had to visit supermarket for a couple of Loaf purchases unfortunately – had run out of risotto rice from our last food coop order and local shops didn’t have any creme fraiche. As this isn’t a personal purchase I’m still claiming a 100% record…