Planners at Rother have lifted the threat of a second supermarket being built on Gibbet Marsh, Rye Council’s Planning Committee have been told.
The area had been allocated in the Rye Neighbourhood Plan as a possible site for another store. The original intention had been for a supermarket on the old lower school site (behind the Queen Adelaide pub in Ferry Road), however after the failure of the Tesco/Sainsbury’s project and following planning applications for residential development on the site, an alternative location was needed for the additional retail space and Gibbet Marsh appeared to be the logical place.
There has been some public opposition to this based on the impact to the adjacent area and, indeed, whether Rye now needed a second supermarket given the increase in size of Jempson’s.
Following the Town Meeting, where these issues were aired, the vice-chairman of the Neighbourhood Plan steering committee, Anthony Kimber, held further discussions with Rother following which Rother revised their position on the development and agreed that “notwithstanding the Core Strategy position that a 2nd store is required; [it is] evident that retail trends have changed; little interest from developers; therefore no expectation of achieving in period.”
This information was given to some members of Rye Town Council Planning Committee on Monday. The meeting was an informal one due to illness and absence of members preventing the required quorum of five required to establish a full meeting.
Gibbet Marsh, therefore, remains, at least for the time being, as car park and open space.
Photo: Rye News library
Image Credits: Rye News library .
Well crazy ideas of a supermarket somewhere on a ‘B’ road ; behind the Adelaide (next to a railway crossing & a fire sation !!) , blot on the top of Cadborough Hill !!!, & then on a car park(which in itself caused enough problems a no of years ago ) !!!! & it seems the individual in charge of Rye’s plan supported it . However every cloud has a silver lining & with the failure of ARRC , the former Freda Gardham school site on the ‘A’ 259 ,in public ownership would & always has been more suitable ,, So Rye town councillors , put that into your plan PDQ & lets hope the County Council can make less of a sloppy job of it than they did with the Ferry Road site ..
My understanding is that the main reason Jempson’s undertook its Rye supermarket expansion was in order to fend off demands for a competing supermarket to be built in the town. In other words, with a larger supermarket, Jempson’s could claim to have Rye covered. The fact remains that Rye still has only one supermarket, a monopoly in effect. This has led to far higher supermarket prices for local residents over the decades. Many people in Rye realise this and do their shopping further afield, or order their groceries online. However, a lot of people, especially the elderly, are obliged to pay Jempson’s prices. If a competitively-priced supermarket were to set up shop in Rye, Jempson’s would be out of Rye within six months. Having said this, Jempson’s has been quite loyal to local producers over the years and should at least be acknowledged for that. After the Tesco/Sainsbury’s fiasco regarding the Ferry Road site, I think Gibbet Marsh was a reasonable choice for a small supermarket at the time the decision was made.
Jempsons have the monopoly in Rye. Very overpriced food and I think most people use,this shop, as a convenience. I suspect their main shop would be purchased elsewhere. Rye is very dependant on the tourist trade in the summer. How can you expect holiday makers to depend on this one overpriced shop, when they don’t open on a Sunday, it’s crazy and so outdated. Jempsons are far too expensive and select for the the young and elderly. The expansion they have made seems to cater for wine lovers and biscuits and cakes, both of which are hardly essentials.
So sad that Tesco’s or Sainsbury’s did not get to build their supermarkets, it looks as though the area which they hoped to use is going to be more houses.
This is so selfish of who ever has made this decision.