Derbyshire store owners demand to shelve plans of new c-store

Numerous local business owners in Bolsover, Derbyshire, have raised objections against the application to convert a former pub into a convenience store, stated reports today (24).

According to local reports, shop owners have pleaded at a meeting of Bolsover District Council’s Planning Committee to shelve proposals to convert a former pub into a convenience store, claiming it would harm their businesses.

Retailer Talaiyasingam Sivalingam, who has been running Vale Stores, in Bramley Vale, for nine years, gathered a petition to oppose the new convenience store. The petition has garnered 250 signatures, reports said.

Sivalingam reportedly claimed that he had invested several thousands of pounds in his family-run shop four years ago, and has recently installed a cash machine following the requests of customers, at a cost of £7,500. He said the new shop would take the customer base that he had built ‘day-by-day’ away. 

Another store owner P. Singh, whose family also owns a shop nearby, raised concerns over the increased traffic the convenience store would create.

“Other than the convenience store, which is already in Bramley Vale, there is already one in Glapwell,” Derbyshire Times quoted Singh as saying, who added that that the site could be used for something else that would be more useful to the community, rather than another convenience shop.