Since people have become aware of the Vale of Glamorgan Councils plans to sell the Cattle Market site for a supermarket the response from the public has been overwhelming. A public campaign, Keep Cowbridge Special, has been created and the town has rallied around their efforts.
I have spoken with a number of local residents, business owners and employees who are concerned about the impact such a proposal would have on the neighbouring properties and Cowbridge High Street. The impact to traders of a fourth supermarket in Cowbridge will be significant and we must continue in our efforts to stop the development.
At this stage, however, the Council’s official policy is to sell the site to a supermarket and unless we are successful in changing this, the next step will be a planning application on behalf of the supermarket. I fear waiting until that stage, will be too late. It is therefore imperative that the we coordinate our actions and encourage our local councillors, the Local Authority Leadership and other elected members to oppose the plans.
I can remember some years ago when there was a plan to put housing on the Cattle Market site and the community response against that was similarly strong but so many people wrote to the Leader of the Council and to the Local Councillors to say no. We must be as strong against this new damaging proposal and remind the Local Authority that Cowbridge is certainly not for sale.
