I received an email today. I’m presuming it isn’t confidential since it mentions a public meeting and has been sent to a large number of people as well as myself:

I am writing to let you know that M&S Simply Food is planning to return to Evesham in a new store at the Evesham Shopping Park, and has arranged a Public Exhibition of the proposals on 27th July at Evesham Town Hall so that residents and businesses can let us know their views, before we submit a planning application to Wychavon District Council.

As you will know, Marks & Spencer opened a Simply Food store in September 2005 at the rear of the Riverside Shopping Centre. This store traded poorly and also experienced falling turnover levels, leading to M&S’ decision to close the store in March 2009. The poor performance reflected the shortcomings of the store and its location, particularly:

• the lack of prominence of the location and limited attraction of this part of the Shopping Centre;
• the small size of the store (some 570 sq m net); and
• less than ideal linkage with surface car parking.

Although M&S closed this town centre store they have sublet the unit to Home Bargains on subsidised terms which provides benefits to the town centre and has provided jobs.

Having reviewed the situation over the past year, M&S Simply Food has decided to return to Evesham, with a new store employing about 60 people. However, for it to be viable it has to;

• be in a prominent, strong trading location with very good accessibility,
• benefit from opportunities for linked trips,
• be of the required size (circa 1,394 sq m gross) and
• have easily accessible adequate surface level parking.

The vacant units at Evesham Shopping Park provide such an opportunity and, after reviewing all other potential sites, is the only site in Evesham that M&S believes would be viable.

The Public Exhibition will be held at Evesham Town Hall on;

Friday 27th July 2012

11.00am – 7.00pm

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it’s good that a major national chain is considering opening in Evesham again. But, on the other hand, I’m disappointed that it’s another edge of town retail park location instead of being in the town centre.

M&S Simply Food is a destination shop, the sort of place that people who use it regularly will go out off their way to reach. So putting it in the town centre would benefit other stores, particularly those which cater to the same kind of market. With all due respect to Home Bargains, they’re not quite in the same league. And personally I’m a bit disappointed, too – what I would really like to see is another major supermarket on the Bengeworth side of the river to compete with Morrisons.

Having said that, I can understand the reasoning here. The Retail Park units are considerably larger than anything available in the town centre, so for something which has aspirations to be a supermarket rather than just a convenience store then that’s far more suitable. And any shop is better than an empty shop; I’d rather M&S aficionados shopped at Evesham Retail Park than drove to Cheltenham or Worcester.

The problem that M&S will have, though, is that the Retail Park doesn’t have planning permission for food stores. A condition attached to the existing permission originally granted to the developers was that the sale of “convenience goods” – which is broadly defined as the sort of things that supermarkets sell (ie, groceries and other everyday items) – isn’t allowed. And the specific reason given for that restriction is in order to protect the town centre. There’s a minor exception for units 2 and 5 (that is, Boots and Poundstretcher) which permits the sale of snacks, sweets and sandwiches provided they’re only a small part of the shop’s floorspace, but opening what is, in effect, a supermarket will require a planning application to be made and granted.

That, of course, is why M&S have circulated this email, and why they’re putting on an exhibition in the Town Hall to display their plans. So go along to the exhibition if you can. And let us know what you think about it:

Do you want a new M&S in the Retail Park? Even if that’s not your preferred location, is it better than nothing? Or would you prefer to say ‘no’ completely and insist that if they want to return to Evesham, they find a suitable town centre option?