"Peter Crosland" wrote in message
...
Agreed. Although twice the number of people, the Jaguar plant closure
will
have a massive negative effect on the local economy so I cannot believe
the
Screwfix closure won't. One wonders what the local council thought it
was
playing at by not allowing an expansion.

See other posts but Screwfix withdrew the application. The stumbling block
was that they wanted to build in open countryside well outside the
development limits. Those limits were not set by the local council but
effectively by central government. It is a common misconception that local
planning authorities have carte blanche when in fact their powers are
constrained by all sorts of Whitehall imposed red tape. The council did
want
Screwfix to expand in Yeovil but not into that particular place. However,
my own theory is that Screwfix wanted to have a distribution centre much
closer to the centre of the country and with good motorway access rather
than be far from both. The application in Yeovil was probably a PR
exercise
to allow them to blame the council for the redundancies.

That could be the case. I was reading that Liverpool FC have applied to
build a stadium on a listed Victorian park next to their existing old
ground. Apparently the local council gave them permission, but the project
has to go to Whitehall for approval being sensitive. Some journos think they
may know they haven't a chance of getting it as every tree hugger for 200
miles around would descend on the park. Also the Anfield area is densely
populated so taking valuable park space is also sensitive. But the club have
to appease their fans and try and blame the government if and when it fails.
Sports fans are sensitive to history and tradition, hence the Millennium
stadium being built on an existing, modern 25 year old stadium that could
have been kept and build the Millennium elsewhere, having two for the price
of one.