Our community doesn't want new superstore

As concerned residents and local retailers, we have looked into that scheme but where any similarity lies is a complete mystery to us.

These are the facts as we see them.

On land usage - courtesy of the sale of land to ASDA, Stevenage College has replaced previously sprawling buildings with a compact college which has a state of the art facility and almost the same area in playing fields it started with.

At Worthing College, ASDA would take most of the land and the college would be squashed on one end of the site. This would mean sports facilities would have to be moved elsewhere, if that was possible.

On location - while there are a few houses to the south of the Stevenage ASDA store, the site is next to the town centre, industrial sites and a leisure complex. Contrast this with the quiet residential community that surrounds Worthing College.

On traffic - in Stevenage, a network of dual carriageways surrounds the college site and give access to the M1. The road network around the Worthing College site is completely different.

On local shops - Strand Parade provides facilities for local residents. Worthing College says ASDA will complement the centre and make it an exciting place to visit.

The majority of superstore shoppers would come after work for main bulk shopping in ASDA. Local shops would be closed and so wouldn't get a look in. Even during the day there would be no attraction for shoppers to cross from the supermarket to the local shops, as ASDA sells everything that the local shops do.

As a consequence of this, Asda would undercut local traders' prices and drive them out of business.

On the local community - the reality is that the bakery, butcher's shop, off-licence, chemist and convenience stores would probably close and Strand Parade would enter a spiral of decline.

As shops close and fewer people are around to create passive surveillance, vandalism, loitering and general anti-social behaviour are likely to increase. Compare this with Stevenage, whose town centre has stores such as Tesco that can offer balanced competition.

On Mr Robinson - college principal John Robinson says that "talk of the store ruining the Strand shopping area is not founded on the facts". We are not convinced Mr Robinson has the qualifications or experiece to make such remarks or calculations of retail impact. He seems to be just peddling the ASDA line and his talk of regenerating the area seems to be the biased opinion of an individual.

On planning policy - Worthing College is not a preferred location for retail development. Sites on the edge of town centres are second preference in the sequential site hierarchy which is town centres, edge of town centres and district centres, local centres, out of centre sites.

The Worthing College site does not fit into any of these categories as it is not a "centre".

The proposals to build Asda at Worthing College is in direct contravention of major policies, not least those aimed at protecting playing fields, open spaces and allocated shopping centres. For Mr Robinson to say that "it is clear that, when judged by the rules of planning policy, our project should be allowed to go ahead" is highly misleading.

On funding - the college principal peddles a form of emotional blackmail saying this project is the only way that the College can raise sufficient funds to redevelop (assuming that a College with a 96.3 per cent pass rate needs redevelopment).

If this was the case, every school and college in the country would be annexed to a superstore of one type or another.

Clearly, this is not the only way for funds to be secured. Other fine new educational facilities have been provided in West Sussex and across the country through the Private Finance Initiative and without any involvement from ASDA Wal-Mart.

-Charlie Strong, Field Place Area Residents' Association, Bolsover Road, Worthing