Longacres Garden
Centre in Bagshot have been accused of threatening
businesses in surrounding villages. Richard Wilson of the
Windlesham Labour Party was speaking against Longacres
application to expand the size of an existing conservatory.
The new, larger conservatory building
would be used as a show house for selling smaller
conservatories.
Richard Wilson said “In Windlesham
we used to have a florist. It closed down in January. The
village food store used to have twice the floor space it now
has. We still have a butcher’s shop but Longacres have
recently opened one of these too. Village centres are being
hollowed out by unplanned growth at this site.”
Conservative Ken Pedder added "I voted against the
last application and I'll vote against this one for the same
reason". The application by Longacres was approved even though there
were significant local objections.
Rick De Kerckhove of Longacres said "This
is the way a lot of garden centres are going. We don’t want to be
losing customers to Esher or Fleet where there are other garden
centres".
Longacres won the planning application with ten
votes to six. Read our review of Longacres Garden Centre
here.