ABetterCrosby

Another Place- is Southport Sefton's only tourist attraction?

2012-01-25T14:13:00.000Z

'Visit Southport' -a travel blogger on Twitter announced-' it's my home town and worth a look.' True, but on further investigation and following the link to the Facebook page the would be visitor is told that Southport is a "Classic Resort" and seemingly the only place in Sefton worth listing .https://www.facebook.com/visitsouthport A small photograph on the home page shows Another Place at Crosby beach by sunset, with no explanation as to where or what it is.
So in the 21st century what constitutes tourism and how should local authorities be promoting it? Surely the days of "resorts" being the focal point as a visitor attraction are long gone. A discerning and well informed population are flocking to places for all sorts of reasons -art, music festivals,nature reserves,vintage sales,street theatre, museums,shopping.
An art installation such as Another Place has massive tourism potential.On several occasions recently whilst there I've met visitors from Spain, coach parties from Bath, film crews from national and international companies.This presents scarce and valuable opportunities for the struggling local economy, but where are the signs to Crosby village or the promotion from Sefton tourism department? Perhaps it would have been more convenient if it had been located on Southport beach, but it's not.
The controversy surrounding the Antony Gormley statues has surely long been laid to rest and it's success as an attraction is evidenced by the numbers of visitors at the site daily in all weathers. Just follow @ironmencrosby on Twitter and read the delightful interactions from visitors (including some celebrities!) to get an idea of their popularity.
So come on Sefton Tourism department (recently stating because of cuts, they're concentrating on the "big four" Southport events) let's see some commitment and vision for the rest of the borough please! But what do YOU think?
@ABetterCrosby

Norma Farrell
PS did I mention theTitanic centenary on the horizon and all the Crosby connections with that?

Where there's a will....supermarkets can do better and smaller

2011-12-13T14:21:00.001Z

Affluent Ripon's historic square where Sainsbury's have tailored their store to fit in sympathetically with the surroundings

Working town Colne in Lancashire - have a similar designed store to the one rejected by Sefton last year

ABetterCrosby's birth was a painful and sudden one in 2010 when it was brought it kicking and screaming into the world (over a pint in the Crows Nest). Initially a group campaigning to stop an ill conceived plan to plonk a white retail park styled monster on top of Crosby village, since then the group has taken its first tentative steps towards becoming a community group to promote the interests of Crosby and its residents and businesses.

We had our first AGM last Feburary, a workshop event 'Re-imagining Crosby Village', responded to the Councils rather dull but important Core Strategy and just this month organised the Christmas Tree and some celebrity support.

Most recently we have re-aquainted ourselves with Sainsbury's team from last year and been introduced to their new member Laurie Chetwood Architect in a series (well three) "charettes"- a device used by architects to throw up ideas for projects and buildings. This of course should have happened last time around but didn't and so expectations this time are high that Sainsbury's really are listening and not just trying to "shoehorn"in their wishes for a very large shop into out town.

Size certainly matters in the world of supermarkets and the definite impression has been given that 50,000 square feet (80000 overall) is a must for a new Crosby store to be viable (the present store is viable at 20000 sq ft if viable = profitable)

So is there a genuine will to lead regeneration of a thriving bustling "High Street" in Crosby village( see Mary Portas review published todayhttp://www.bis.gov.uk/news/topstories/2011/Dec/portas-review) by Sainsbury's, or just a cosmetic exercise in wrapping up a huge store in acceptable packaging, leaving independent traders without affordable premises in which to continue trading and offering diverse, sustainable, individual and local shops.

Watch this space...carefully.

David Morrissey Lights Up Crosby Village!

2011-12-05T16:22:00.000Z

Choirs,dancing girls,fairground rides,hog roasts and Hollywood film stars all made their way to Moor Lane Crosby on Friday December 2nd for the annual lights switch on, organised this year by ABC and in particular Peter Harvey.
Hundreds gathered around the tree in high expectation as David Morrissey arrived, unbelievably punctually, no waiting around in the cold for this mega star. It was as though he had just popped by on the off chance that the Christmas tree lights needed switching on and after a few words in his familiar and friendly way the lights were lit! Of course we might have expected him to rush off again, as Friday was a busy day for him, but no, he chatted, posed for photos and signed autographs, he seemed to have time for everyone.
Thanks David, a true star.

Sevenstreets support ABetterCrosby events

2011-11-30T13:57:00.004Z

The ever inventive and informative Sevenstreets, Liverpool based website has included our Christmas events in their latest piece here-

http://www.sevenstreets.com/events-and-attractions/radar-david-morrissey-visits-crosby/

Thanks to them for their support and long may they continue to inform and entertain us.

Crosby 365

2011-11-30T10:43:00.000Z

Have a look at Crosby in a unique way,every day of the year- the brilliant idea of local photographer Andrew Hoban @hobanphoto on Twitter. Crosby 365 is a series of photographs taken of the places we pass all the time but maybe don't notice or have forgotten about.
Here's one we all know - with the "Great" in Crosby!

David Morrissey( in conjunction with ABetterCrosby ) celebrates Christmas!

2011-11-17T14:19:00.000Z

Times are hard in Crosby and elsewhere, but the spirit of Christmas - giving, community, togetherness, lives on and this year as a group of hard working residents, the committee of ABC have worked tirelessly to organise a Christmas tree for the village. We will be collecting outside Sainsbury's and near Boots on Saturday 26th November from 10am -4pm so please donate if you can
We do however need lots of help with funding and here are the details of an event organised to support the Plaza and Christmas in Crosby on Friday 2nd of December. Please try to attend one or both events and show you care about the community you live in and make it a BETTER place to live
http://www.crosbyherald.co.uk/news/crosby-news/2011/11/17/david-morrissey-to-light-up-crosby-68459-29790234/

Art Exhibition 21st November Oh you Pretty Things Victoria Road Crosby

2011-11-13T19:05:00.003Z

A group of young local artists are holding an exhibition of their work this month at Crosby's latest independent business venture Oh You Pretty Things (shop and Gallery on Victoria Road just up from the Crow's Nest pub)
It starts on Monday 21st November and is on for a month - great ideas for original Christmas presents.
http://theliverpoolartcompany.co.uk/

http://ohyouprettythingsonline.com/

A fairer future for Crosby

2011-11-03T13:43:00.002Z

At the Council's Crosby Area Committee last night Rev'd Canon Roger Driver, Dean of Bootle, (which as a Deanery also covers Waterloo, Netherton, Seaforth and Litherland) made a proposal that Crosby should become Sefton's first FAIR TRADE TOWN.

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/get_involved/campaigns/fairtrade_towns/about_fairtrade_towns.aspx

Most people know what Fair Trade is all about, and it is hard not to agree with the idea.
If Crosby were to make the grade, and get recognition, it would a real good news story, with lots of knock on benefits, linking all sorts of community groups and schools to ideas about trade, and crucially, promoting all trade in Crosby.
What was stricking was that Rev'd Canon has identified Crosby as the place most likely to succeed in Sefton in achieving Fair Trade Status. He said Crosby already has business, such as Cafe Barista in Crosby Village, amongst many others which are Fair Trade. There is already real interest across Crosby about the issues Fair Trade address, with groups such as the Waterloo Partnership, and numerous local charites and church projects.
Taking a moment to dwell on this, Crosby has reason to be graciously proud that people perceive ours to be a community that understands and thinks about such issues beyond our doorstep. Although apparently Fair Trade also does work around fair local trade - supporting food producers in Sefton perhaps.
Rev'd Canon went to the Council meeting to get council support, which he did, and now needs community and trader support. With Crosby's population of about 50,000 people he is looking for 12 or so Fair Trade retailers and 6 Fair Trade cafes or restaurants. If you are interested in getting involved please get in touch with him or the national Fair Trade organisation.

Two Crosby Things for Halloween

2011-10-24T20:11:00.003+01:00

Two seemingly unrelated seasonal ideas for you -

1) In our family's continual attempts to live well for less, we use our local green grocer - and look what we saw today !

Local produce for Queensway Allotment - definately the biggest range of pumpkins in Crosby.

At £2.40 for a biggish one, £1.40 for melon sized and £1.00 for small ones, can you find better value - or a better choice in Crosby? Find the display at Pineapple on South Road and the pumpkins at both their shops.The other one is on St Johns Road.

2) Totally seperately jewellery shop Oh You Pretty Things at the top of Victoria are having a spooky film night on Halloween itself - its sounds like fun......
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oh-You-Pretty-Things/122332047831273?sk=info#!/event.php?eid=155561041207495&notif_t=event_invite

Disconnected, different, things but two local shops adding some colour and personality to life in Crosby.

A great place to be

2011-10-22T23:35:00.002+01:00

Saturday afternoon, 22^nd October.

Wow, what a lovely day. I have just come back from taking my kids to the playpark in Crosby Marine Park, next to the lake.

About 3pm Saturday 22nd October - How many people can you count?

The weather was crisp, clear and bright, and the park was absolutely packed – we had to queue up for every go on the swings, ‘frying pan’ and slide. What an amazing transformation from the state of the park a year and a half ago, when the play area was hidden by rat infested shrubbery and the main users of the equipment were youths looking for a quiet place for an alcoholic drink.

Congratulations should go to the relevant people in Sefton Council, who managed to make the right decisions and implement the right solutions. Everybody involved, which includes the local community via the Friends of the Park, should be proud of how the whole place has been transformed.

The better play area seems to be bringing far more people into the park – all year round, and in turn they are discovering the birds, crabbing, the wealth of water sports on the lake and the Iron Men.

Good places require constant care and intelligent development. I read in the Crosby Herald the other week how the council are aiming to save money/make money, and one of their budget figures is to make more money from the new Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre (what a mouthful!). How?

Sticking an attractive sign up on the building, saying ‘Family Café and Bistro here!’, would be a good start. Not everybody realises it is a public building, not just a water sports centre, and any commercial bistro would surely be promoting themselves to the captive (trapped with children) audience of parents in the park. I was definitely in the market for a coffee and some hot hearty grub after my stint of childcare, along with a couple of cakes for the kids.

Next Saturday 29^th Oct 3pm- 5pm it the Scarecrow Festival in the Marine Gardens next door. This was a really brilliant family event last year. Here's a review from last year -www.sevenstreets.com

Let’s hope for the same weather as today. See you there.

ABetterCrosby

Mary Portas - what's the new high street 'model' then??

2011-09-08T00:32:00.002+01:00

Did you see Mary Portas on the news last night? – click here

She was commissioned by the government in May to look at the problems of the High Street, but it appears she is making slow progress....

"There are some towns where it is dead, the horse has bolted," she said, adding that in such towns it was time to give up on the previous model and rethink its uses. When asked by the man from the BBC ‘What do you think the new model (for high streets) will be?’ Mary said ‘When I work that out I will let you know.’ Let’s hope she does.

Here there are real problems with Crosby Village which we want fixed, but also some clues as to what these new models might be.

For Mary’s benefit we describe one of these below, although we should say we thought the small amount that Mary did say made a lot of sense, unlike the two unimaginative blokes interviewed by Jeremy Paxman afterwards.

A Clue from Crosby - New ‘Linked Trips’

This is professional, big-business, retail-speak for saying that once you have been to John Lewis you’re likely to go to Pizza Express or Gap or the Odeon as well. Once upon a time High Streets worked because people would go to the green grocer and then the butcher, baker and candlestick maker (once upon a long time ago).

In today’s retail environment this concept is often pushed by supermarkets who imply their presence and influx of customers will promote use of surrounding local businesses , but as they are now trying to sell everything you can think of the only linked trip their customers actually make is to the car park.

New ideas about linked trips are fundamental to reviving the High Street.

Ballet Class-Apples-Bread-Coffee

Kathy Watkins School of Dance provides excellent teaching for children of all ages, with classes in the afternoon and evening during the week, and all day Saturdays. I take my young daughter at 11am on Saturdays for a 45 minute class that costs £3.00. The dance studio, with full mirrored wall, is on South Road above the green grocer, Pineapple, so I buy some fruit - 6 good apples 99p - cheaper than the supermarket, some veg from Lancashire, eggs from Hightown. As I then still have 35 minutes to kill, too long to wait, too short to go home, I go to the bakers, Satterthwaites ,a few shops down and then for a rare child-free moment to Koffee to read the paper with a drink. Then its collection time and we both go home happy.

I usually spend £10 to £25 in total, and I am only there because of the dance class. Kathy Watkin runs 7 classes on a Saturday, with about 15 kids in each, and I see other parents doing the same as me. If half of them shop a bit like me then that’s more than £1000 spent on South Road rather than somewhere else. For me this is not intentionally helping local businesses, it’s just that putting all these services together, with child care and child stimulation, offers me better value, better convenience and a better quality of life on a Saturday morning than any other option.

We are fortunate, on an otherwise very average street, to still have a few good shops, and it is notable how precariously they survive, dependent upon each other, just about holding a web of possible linked trips together. Like the rollercoaster at Liverpool ONE it is the extra things, dance classes on South Road, that can give a place a helping hand .

All this is but just one of a whole range of issues which need to be considered. No doubt Mary will work all of this out, and as she concluded her interview ‘If you get really savvy, together, councils who understand the importance of regeneration in the towns then they will be looking at the community, understanding what their needs are’. ....

South Road is a finely balanced marginally surviving economy, and our council is just about to introduce car parking charges.……..

ABetterCrosby

ABetterCrosby - our Vision for Crosby

2011-08-07T11:29:00.003+01:00

Welcome back, or hello for the first time.

For the last few months we have been quietly busy.

Since our Annual General Meeting in February, and our Re-Imagining Crosby Village workshop in April, we have been talking to council officers, Councillors and others about how to make real progress with improvements to Crosby Village.

We are now asking for views on our initial ideas for the future of the village - which you can read about HERE - please either comment on the post or email us at mailto:abettercrosby@googlemail.com, if you have any thoughts you would like to add.

Most urgently we are also making formal comment on Sefton Council's Core Strategy - the key planning document which will direct development in Sefton for the next 15 years. You may have heard of this in the context of proposals to reduce the Green Belt, but it is about much more than that, and it is our best chance of influencing local policy. Please read our draft response HERE, and if you can, make your own, personal response on the councils quick and easy on-line survey, here. The last day for responses is Friday 12th August.

There are many other things we wish we intend to do, particularly organising some community events in Crosby Village, and creating a marketing campaign for Crosby, but right now our resources are limited. If you would like to help us and get involved in anyway please get in touch.

The Committee of ABetterCrosby

Rev Pete Spiers (Chair), Norma Farrell, Peter Harvey, Jamie Scott, Barbara Mason, Lesley Mason, Esther Matthews, Adam Ritchie, Clare Holland

IMPORTANT !! - The Core Strategy

2011-08-07T09:17:00.002+01:00

Although it might not be top of your list of things to do this week, making a reply to the Sefton Council's Core Strategy is important, please complete the online survey if you can spare just a couple of minutes. Replies must be submitted by this Friday 12th August.

Last year when we campaigned for a better future for Crosby Village we discovered the importance of Planning Policy in directing the decisions of Councillors and developers. The Core Strategy is our communities best, perhaps only, chance to shape and direct the actual policies that control what kind of development can take place across Crosby and in the Village.

Before highlighting the quick links to the survey - here is the background -

ABC is a community group which has the stated aim: ‘to bring about positive change for the residents of Crosby by celebrating its heritage and directing its future’

ABC is currently focused on promoting the regeneration of Crosby Village, by creating a positive and achievable vision for the village and wider area. ABC held a consultation event in April 2011, and has continued dialogue with local people, Councillors and Council Officers.

ABC believes that a clear, positive, commercially viable and popular Vision for Crosby can play an important role in attracting investment and development.

Any development must sit within the planning framework, and the Core Strategy is an important part of that framework, setting the tone and context for all development in the borough.

Consequently we are commenting on the Core Strategy as a key planning document, which will outline the approach to development in Crosby.

The more local people who make direct responses to Sefton Council expressing their own views on the Core Strategy the better.

ABC has not made any direct comment on the Green Belt or Greenspace Strategies. Both of these follow on from the needs and direction of the Core Strategy.

Sefton’s own introduction …

Core Strategy Options Response form

We are currently preparing the Core Strategy for Sefton. This will be the key long-term plan that will help shape how our towns and villages, our coast and countryside. We are also consulting on a number of supporting studies, on housing, jobs, the Green Belt and Green Spaces. We want your views on all of these.

Issues and Challenges

1(a) Do you agree with the issues and challenges we have identified? (click here to see these)

ABC Response - No

1(b) Are there any other issues or challenges we need to consider? What are they are, and why do you think they are important? Or have we included any that are not important? Why aren’t they?

Whilst ABC does agree that issues A to E are important, we believe the overarching key issue is to ‘Improve the Quality of Sefton’s Places’.

Whilst a general statement we believe this needs to be stated as the Core Strategy needs a clear positive message. Quality of Place is fundamental to many of the other issues and challenges identified.

We believe the emphasis currently given to the identified issues should be adjusted. We believe the most important is D – Thriving, whilst the attention paid to A - Housing across the Core Strategy is too dominant. In this the Core Strategy could have a clear relationship to economic development plans for the borough.

A Quality Homes and Neighbourhoods

Only items A4 & A5, make reference to issues relating to Quality or Neighbourhoods regarding vacancy levels and local distinctiveness, both of which we agree are very important. The apparent key focus, being identified as the first issue is housing need. Whilst important, and clearly a very complex subject which has demanded a lot of study and consideration, rather than being driven by statistical analysis first and foremost, producing seem surprising requirements, we believe the idea of Quality Places (leading to economic growth) should drive the strategy, with the necessary provision for potential new housing responding accordingly.

The need for more space for housing is explained in the extensive documentation, and the risk to Core Strategy approval is noted. However the argument that a declining population in Sefton requires additional new housing land seems unsustainable.

Smaller households, aging population and greater affluence explain the recent need more land, however since the financial crisis we wonder if these same expansionist pressures will continue. How has the analysis taken account of the big changes in the housing market and UK economy of recent years and months? If the Core Strategy is based on evidence of past trends, how are these translated into the apparently different future we face?

Vision and Objectives

2(a) Do you agree that the Vision and Objectives are appropriate and the right ones for Sefton? (See draft Core Strategy Options Paper Pages 22-24 - by clicking here).

ABC Response – No

2(b) If not, what changes would you suggest?

Whilst the elements of the vision described by items 4.3 to 4.9 are all good (improved health, climate change, use of underused land & buildings, new homes, transport, employment, thriving local centres), we believe there should be a clear ‘Golden Thread’- an overarching, positive vision statement that sets an exciting target for the next 15 years. Such a ‘Golden Thread’ could move local and media conversations about the Core Strategy from worries about Green Belt to positive discussions about a distinct future for Sefton.

Item 4.2 contains good points, but not a strong core idea. Whilst regeneration of Bootle and Southport is important, all the places of Sefton should be encouraged to develop into better quality places, and the emphasis of the text should be on all the places of Sefton equally.

Possible ideas for a ‘Golden Thread’ –

The Active Coast – one of England’s finest coastal boroughs.

The extent and diversity of our coastline is a wonderful asset, not currently reflected in the Core Strategy. Few places in the UK have such a coastline, with beaches on their doorstep yet are simultaneously less than 30 minutes or an hour from a major city centre. Sefton should seek to take maximum advantage from this.

Based around its coast, Sefton could aim to be the North West’s premier tourist and leisure destination, and one of its most popular residential locations. Fulfilling these objectives it could secure additional employment and create thriving places.

Within this broad idea each distinct place could promote its own positive future plan. We think the Core Strategy should include clear ‘pen-portraits’ of potential futures for each of its places.

Southport – To re-establish itself as one of the country’s most popular, high quality, ‘classic resorts’.
Formby – To become the best small town (commuter town) in the North West. Improved accessibility to the motorway network, the coast, golf and sports facilities, and quality homes allow it to complete with any town in terms of quality of life.
Crosby – Liverpool’s best suburb, which benefits from its own clear identity as a distinctive town. With great schools, housing, beaches and a vibrant and popular centre (“the Village”), which serves the whole community whilst retaining historic character and distinctiveness.
Bootle – A thriving port and office district support a growing range of commercial activity and employment. This activity provides the lead to wider regeneration.
Maghull – An increasingly accessible and desirable suburb. An improved town centre and improved links into the surrounding countryside and to the coast enhance its qualities.

An alternate or additional ‘Golden Thread’ could be ‘Sustainable Sefton’

The quality and proximity of agricultural land, accessibility by train, scale of our towns and population, and new coastal energy production combine to give Sefton some very strong sustainability credentials. These qualities could be developed to promote Sefton as one of the most sustainable boroughs, and consequently one of the best places to live, in the country.

The concept of a ‘Golden Thread’ is taken from an article and presentation about creating good plans currently on the Royal Town Planning Institute website –

http://www.rtpi.org.uk/item/4694&

http://www.rtpi.org.uk/download/12339/110228PresentationtoCoventryV03small.pdf

We also highlight the recommendations of the Design Council/CABE document –

http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/Documents/Documents/Publications/CABE/planning-for-places.pdf

Homes

3(a)     How important is it that we identify enough land to meet Sefton’s housing needs?
(Please mark on a scale of 1 to 5 below. 1 = unimportant and 5 = very important).

ABC Response - 3 reasonably important, and it is very important to get the Core Strategy approved, but we think actual need in the future needs careful assessment. Note that item 4.15 of Housing Technical Paper states most recent DCLG Household Growth Projection for Sefton is only 320 homes p/a.

Jobs

4(a)     How important is it that we identify enough land for jobs and businesses in Sefton?
(Please mark on a scale of 1 to 5 below. 1 = unimportant and 5 = very important).

ABC Response – 5 very important

Options

5(a)     Which option of our three do you think is the right option for Sefton?

ABC Response –

A version of Option 1 (urban containment), which focuses on quality of place and sustainability, reconsiders housing need /space required, and has less risk of not being approved by inspectors.

Last word on this -

Whether you agree with our approach and responses or not, your own reply to the Core Strategy is important. To date the Council has only received 2000 replies, relatively few, and we would encourage you to promote Crosby's future .

You can see all the council information here -

http://www.sefton.gov.uk/corestrategy

And the quick on line response is here -

https://engagespace.co.uk/sefton/survey/ConRespForm.aspx?consult_Id=602&request_response=new&status=&criteria=I

Thanks you for your interest..

ABetterCrosby

The NEF workshop, Reimagining Crosby Village

2011-08-07T00:03:00.001+01:00

Ideas for Crosby

notes of proposals suggested at Re-Imagining Crosby Village workshop event in April 2011

The NEF workshop, Reimagining Crosby Village

The ABetterCrosby event, Reimagining Crosby Village, was attended by around 50 people of all ages from 16 to 80, including representatives from the public, voluntary and education sectors, local traders and members of the community.

We asked NEF to lead the event, find out about them here.

The interactive part of the evening involved attendees considering what stops money from leaking away from a community and also what maximises well-being in a local high street. So the twin aspects of prosperity and quality of life were considered.

Proposals for positive action were generated. These ideas were recorded on flipchart paper and maps of the area. People then applied stickers to these proposals as a way of voting.

Grouping the projects together by theme allows some of the key issues raised to be identified. They are listed here in no particular order.

Marketing

Promote tourism / leisure uses. To enable this a clear vision for Crosby, a sense of what makes it special, is required.
Provide online consumer info and use social media.
Seasonal festivals – add summer children’s festival to current music festival (spring), proposed Goose Feast (autumn) and Christmas events to make seasonal calendar
Local arts competitions / exhibitions – use disused spaces, shop window competitions, school involvement

Accessibility

Allow more people easier access to the village, increase number of people in village.
Sensible parking policies.
Better access for pedestrians into village from surrounding areas, i.e. crossing roads, and sense of (visual) connection/safety.
Create positive welcome into the village.
Cycle routes – beach / schools / homes linking up right in the Village centre
Create a ‘Hub’ (financing, information, activities, promotions, volunteering, action, community interaction, friendships)

Develop Trading Initiatives

Promoting local produce
Loyalty scheme for local businesses / Traders to cooperate together
Local traders and community action support & pressure authority to keep the area and shopfronts clean and tidy.
Community buy-outs of underutilised property
Project Griffin (community involvement in protecting against crime)

Improved public space and facilities

Create facilities and buildings which will increase the use of the village by bringing more people to the area.
Children’s Play area
Bandstand
Pocket Park
Public toilets

There were many other ideas proposed that we will keep for the future, but the list above is plenty to think about for now. All of the ideas generated by the event will be considered within the preparation of the ‘Vision for Crosby’.

A PLAN for Crosby

2011-08-06T23:56:00.002+01:00

A Plan for Crosby

Second draft text, 5 August 2011

ABetterCrosby is a community group which has the stated aim: ‘to bring about positive change for the residents of Crosby by celebrating its heritage and directing its future’

We are promoting the regeneration of Crosby Village, and with this objective in mind we held a consultation event in April 2011 to discuss ideas for the village, and have continued dialogue with local people, Councillors and Council Officers.

ABC believes that a positive, commercially viable and popular Vision for Crosby can play an important role in attracting investment and development which can improve the quality of the village.

The purpose of this text is to initiate such a vision, which local people, the public sector and commercial interests can support and act upon.

To get from the idea of regenerating Crosby Village to actual physical development is a complex process of many steps, but a clear strategy is the first requirement. These are only early steps, but they build upon a clear need for action following a high level of community interest in the state of the Village during 2010.

Elements of this Vision

From a simple idea or ‘Vision’ for our town, comes a series of ‘Necessary Qualities’, things which the town needs to do but currently does not. In turn these qualities suggest a series of ‘Requirements’, tangible things which would improve the town, and taking these requirements together and seeing the whole picture, will allow a ‘Masterplan’ to be created. This will take all the current aspects of the village and the ‘Requirements’ and create a plan of interlinked development projects and smaller improvements which work together to provide the best possible solution for the whole community.

We want to agree the key ‘Requirements’, with all interested parties before progressing to a ‘Masterplan’. Some things won’t work together, and only a ‘Masterplan’ solution can bring it all together, and demonstrate to sceptics what is possible for Crosby Village.

The Vision

Liverpool’s best suburb, which benefits from its own clear identity as a distinctive town.

With great schools, housing, parks, beaches and a thriving centre (“the Village”), which serves the whole community whilst retaining its historic character, Crosby is recognised as one of the best places to live and work in Merseyside.

Most aspects of this vision are already in place, with the exception of Crosby Village being a thriving centre.

The Necessary Qualities of Crosby Village

Serving our whole community

Crosby Village is not thriving because it is not providing the right services that attract customers. Currently many shop units are empty whilst others provide for the ‘value’ market, leaving only a few others attracting a wider range of customers. The viscous circle of lack of customers leading to a lack of shops must be broken. There are entrepreneurs who want to create profitable, popular businesses, as seen in other areas of Crosby, and the village has a strong catchment area, but the reasons businesses are not locating here must be addressed. One reason is a lack of clarity about the future of the village. An agreed plan will address this. Another is visibility of the village, unless you choose to explore the pedestrianised areas, then you don’t know what is happening - there is no passing trade at all. This makes starting a new business particularly hard. Lack of easy access into the village, with pedestrians having to negotiate busy road crossings, and car users having to ‘pay and display’, also deters potential customers. Another issue is rent levels, but these should be driven by market values and responsible landlords, for whom some rent should be better than nothing. The best chance to improve rents is to improve the service the village provides. Our proposal cannot determine or install the exact type of businesses that will revive the village, but it can create the conditions which will make the village attractive to entrepreneurs who are able to serve the changing needs of our community.

Creating commercial value

The regeneration must be commercially led. Fortunately there is already a lot of commercial interest in the village, due the potential market of its catchment area. Creating attractive conditions and value for businesses so they want to invest in depends understanding and serving their needs to. A key to this is having major attractive shopping or leisure ‘anchors’ which bring customers with money to spend to the village. One of these attractors should be a larger supermarket providing for household’s regular ‘big shop’ for food. Another should be a range of smaller distinct businesses which work together to create a cluster of activity which draws customers. Examples of this kind of district include Birkdale Village, where the range of independent food shops and cafes work together, and Hope Street Liverpool, where a cluster of cafes and restautants combine to create a popular destination. Apart from retail and services value is also created from property. The Core Strategy identifies future development needs across Sefton, particularly residential requirements, and it may be that additional value can be created by introducing such other uses into and around Crosby Village

Reflecting our heritage

Successful places don’t just offer services but also have some distinct character and quality of place, making them interesting to visit. The history of Crosby gives it some character which can be reinforced by sensitive development. The origins of the town are seen in the street pattern and historic pubs. The Art Deco Glenn Buildings remind us of the growth of Crosby with the train /tram in the 1930s, and these buildings, with restoration, could be the hub of a cluster of attractive shops and cafes, or alternate businesses serving future needs.

Responding to future needs

To be successful Crosby needs to be able to respond to future requirements, some which may not yet even be apparent. Many of the things identified in Sefton’s sustainability policy try to suggest what these future issues may be, and these policies should be carefully considered. Changes in transportation cost, changes in shopping habits, and changes in affluence may all affect our Village. Crosby needs to be flexible, its buildings and infrastructure need to become and remain flexible, to allow it to respond positively to future changes.

(Do you agree with these headline qualities?- any others you think are important?)

Requirements

The qualities identified allow us to think about what the actual solutions could be, and the key ones are outlined below. The theme of these is ‘Unlocking Crosby Village’

Accessibility

From discussions with traders across Crosby it is clear that customer access is absolutely vital. Crosby Village is isolated from its community by the road network, parking arrangements and charges, and the extent of pedestrianisation.

A number of things can be done, and we would like people’s opinions on them.

Introduce a controlled element of car access, de-pedestrianising part of Crosby Village. We anticipate this would be a one way system, with the bypasses for traffic remaining fully functional, but local traffic, taxis, and perhaps buses would be able to go through the village, and also make convenience stops.
Improve pedestrian crossing points, particularly from Cooks Road and Coronation Road, such that Crosby Village integrates itself into surrounding pedestrian routes in a much better way .
Build a cycling network across Crosby linking schools, the coastline and the shopping areas together, with Crosby Village as the hub of this network.
Get a better parking charge system, which encourages visits of more than 30 minutes to the village.

New facilities to attract new customers

A new supermarket, new shops, cafes, offices, and new housing will all be identified in the plan for Crosby, each bringing more people into the village and creating value for developers. To be successful, all these different elements must work together.

A Co-ordinated solution

The success of Crosby depends upon all the landowners and developers seeing the wider benefit of a co-ordinated solution, and working towards such a solution together. There are a number of key landowners, and one of the most significant of these is Sefton Council. To take Crosby forward requires a co-ordinated and committed approach from Council Officers and Councillors, which can again be sought by the people of Crosby, as it was successfully in 2010. Local businesses and other interested parties also need to share the same vision for a good future for Crosby, the disappointments of recent years leave many sceptical, and it will take time to demonstrate the opportunities.

Promoting our Neighbourhood

For all these things to happen, we must be positively minded and positively promote Crosby. Marketing by old and new methods, events, and community activity in the village all play an important part in setting the scene for a positive future for Crosby. Every music festival, school project, or seasonal performance brings extra life to Crosby Village and from such little projects (acorns?), big things grow (trees!).

Masterplan

Work is underway preparing this plan which will set out how all the different things work together, but before we complete our suggestions – which we want to do in consultation with landowners and the council, we would like any feedback you may have on the principles we have set out.

We hope to hear from you, we will be circulating our suggested Masterplan soon.

ABetterCrosby.

August 2011

Our community wants...

2011-02-19T13:50:00.000Z

Our community wants…..

Those three little words come up regularly on my computer screen as I open the www.abettercrosby.com website, but actually what does it want 8 months down the road from a very hard won campaign to stop Sainsbury’s in their tracks?

Following the euphoria of the planning committee’s turnaround in the middle of September a small group of us have continued to meet and keep in touch electronically to maintain the momentum of that success and to ask the question where do we go from here?

We didn’t need long to realise that it was going to be a lot more difficult to galvanise opinion and action now that there was no longer a common adversary and luckily Christmas came along at just the right time to concentrate everyone’s efforts -the LIGHTS switch on. Never had I realised how much time, energy, of all types, and indeed money went into organising an event such as this. I will never look at Christmas lights in any town, village or city in quite the same way again and much credit in Crosby goes to those people who made it happen in 2010, in a very depressed time for all such publicly funded events. You know who you are.

So looking forward to a new year and an even better Crosby, it was felt that to make real progress we would need to formalise the group and have a committee. This means we will eventually be able to open a bank account and apply for funding to organise events- a resurrection of the ancient custom of a Goose Feast has been enthusiastically talked about already.

Lots of publicity, posters, talk, Tweets, Facebook links and e mails later the inaugural AGM was attended by about 100 locals and the necessary formality of the election of a committee of previously involved members was completed with consummate professionalism by Sefton CVS.

Of course this is only the beginning for ABetterCrosby and now it’s up to the new members to start having their say and giving their time to the cause of making the community we all live in a much better place. It really is up to you, so don’t be shy get in touch and get involved.

ABC

Hello again

2011-02-18T13:26:00.001Z

Very quickly, as the volunteers involved in ABetterCrosby are busy people, who struggle to find time for everything, (explaining the quiteness of this blog recently), just to say it was really brilliant that more than 100 people came to the Inaugural AGM last week.

Will be in touch with all the new members soon, and will be holding a more interactive event in the near future.

In the meantime if you have any suggestions following last weeks presentation, or questions or would like to get involved more please either comment to this blog post or email abettercrosby@googlemail.com

Thank you for your interest.

ABC

Better bread.. locally

2010-10-14T00:03:00.003+01:00

Satterthwaites recently asked for customer feedback.

It may be coincidence, but the other day we picked up a loaf of their new round oatmeal/granary bread - and it is amazingly yummy. It is the kind of bread you accidently eat all of with butter (Lurpak on the adverts but actually supermarket own-brand (Sainsbury's) this month) before making any sandwiches for work.
Buy this bread, it is lovely.

Writing this posting seems sort of trivial, yet really I don't think it is. We all buy certain things from certain shops, and this year the satisfaction of shopping local has grown on my family. But we always used to end up with supermarket bread (never pies) from their 'bakery' because it tastes good - now Satterthwaites's tastes better.
It's all very well being high-minded about the value of local businesses but it is a lot easier when they sell great stuff!
http://www.satterth.co.uk/bread.html

What now?

2010-10-11T23:59:00.002+01:00

Life in Crosby goes on, things have gone back to normal – and naturally people ask what now? – nothing?

Well no.... stopping Sainsbury’s proposal may have been the starting point but it quickly became apparent that it can only be the first part of the objective, and everyone has rightly said something needs to be done to improve Crosby Village. We hope this will be a new different proposal from Sainsbury’s, along with a load of other local community and local council driven initiatives, giving us a village centre that works for everybody.

The speed and pressure of the Planning process for Sainsbury’s made for an exciting and fast moving summer, with the highlights of the two Planning Committees making ‘half time’ (0-0) and ‘full time’ (1-0) for the Community vs Supermarket contest. But that match is over and the next phases will naturally be slower. It is harder to keep plugging away without the threat of imminent demolition, but a sound strategy for progress is steadily coming together.

Totally separately, tonight I took my son (6) to his class round the corner at Waterloo Judo. They have a great bunch of teachers and a great new building. I know very little about Judo, but can see watching the class what a great all-round discipline it is. Having only recently discovered this centre - http://www.waterloojudoclub.co.uk/ I would recommend it to anyone with kids, especially those needing a bit of physical action in a really positive, disciplined environment.

Walking home with my exhilarated, exhausted little boy I thought what a brilliant place Crosby is to bring up a family.

Back home I have just looked up a definition of Judo on Wikipedia – see below - and an extract here... "The way of gentleness….. it is the principle of using one's opponent's strength against him and adapting well to changing circumstances.” As I said, totally separate, but I can think of at least one big business that could learn something here.

Meaning of Judo

Judo: "The way of gentleness".

The word "judo" shares the same root ideogram as "jujutsu": "jū" (柔?), which may mean "gentleness", "softness", "suppleness", and even "easy", depending on its context. Such attempts to translate jū are deceptive, however. The use of jū in each of these words is an explicit reference to the martial arts principle of the "soft method" (柔法 jūhō?). The soft method is characterized by the indirect application of force to defeat an opponent. More specifically, it is the principle of using one's opponent's strength against him and adapting well to changing circumstances. For example, if the attacker was to push against his opponent he would find his opponent stepping to the side and allowing his momentum (often with the aid of a foot to trip him up) to throw him forwards (the inverse being true for pulling). Kano saw jujutsu as a disconnected bag of tricks, and sought to unify it according to a principle, which he found in the notion of "maximum efficiency". Jujutsu techniques that relied solely on superior strength were discarded or adapted in favour of those that involved redirecting the opponent's force, off-balancing the opponent, or making use of superior leverage.

The second characters of judo and jujutsu differ. Where jujutsu (柔術 jūjutsu?) means the "art", "science", or "techniques" of softness, judo (柔道 jūdō?) means the "way" of softness. The use of "dō" (道?), meaning way, road or path (and is the same character as the Chinese word "tao"), has philosophical overtones. This is the same distinction as is made between Budō and Bujutsu. Use of this word is a deliberate departure from ancient martial arts, whose sole purpose was for killing. Kano saw judo as a means for governing and improving oneself physically, mentally, emotionally and morally. He even extended the physical principle of maximum efficiency into daily life, evolving it into "mutual prosperity". In this respect, judo is seen as a holistic approach to life extending well beyond the confines of the dojo.

New website nearly ready..

2010-09-21T22:46:00.000+01:00

Were are still recovering from the excitement of last week, but some very dilligent people have made a great start on a new website - link here..

www.wix.com/ransomwebdesign/A-Better-Crosby

In time we will sort out all the glitches and hopefully provide a useful and easy to use source of information about all things good in Crosby.

We are houseproud

2010-09-20T23:48:00.000+01:00

Here is a photo of a shop on St Johns Road. I bought some wood, grout and other bits last weekend. Friendly service, and as i had my baby with me the shop keeper carried my stuff to my car.

Maybe it was a bit less cheap than a bigger store, but I saved the time and petrol of driving to Aintree - where the competing store looks a bit like this....

image from internet, where you realise all B&Qs, everywhere look like this.

Why pay more?.... well it's obvious isn't it?

Sainsbury's planning application was rejected last week, and we are working towards securing a new better proposal with Sainsbury's. Yes we desperately need investment in Crosby, but not at any price, and the damage their proposals did to the rest of the village was not acceptable.

http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/reimagining-the-high-street

Long live Crosby

2010-09-13T12:00:00.000+01:00

ABetterCrosby has the support of Liverpool Friends of the Earth

2010-09-10T13:30:00.000+01:00

ABetterCrosby received the following statement and thanks Liverpool Friends of the Earth for their support and for highlighting the following issues;
"Liverpool Friends of the Earth hopes that the residents and community groups of Crosby are able to have a full say in the development of the village and its amenities - and not merely to respond to 'top-down' proposals. In particular, disproportionate power and profits should not be handed over to Sainsbury's or any other outside corporation.

"While supermarkets have a role to play in serving the needs and wishes of local communities, all too often they come in on their own terms to exploit 'market opportunity' by bringing in more traffic and shoppers from other areas and making life more stressful, not less, for local people. Time and again, unnecessarily large stores lead to net job losses as local shops go under. A major part of the problem is that big outside companies have more financial and legal clout than the local council, which cannot or dare not stand up to them in the name of its electors and taxpayers.

"Over-sized supermarkets are also huge contributors to climate change, not only through adding to car journeys but through the carbon footprint of the goods they bring in. They may employ some local people on the tills, but they are not geared up to sell local farm produce or give trade to local businesses.

"It is incumbent on Sefton and all local authorities - in conjunction with their business and community partners - to ensure all new developments help to reduce carbon emissions from those caused by current practice. This is to protect both present and future generations. We want to see this done in Crosby and throughout Merseyside."

2010-09-10T12:15:00.000+01:00

Sainsbury’s Colne- a case study in supermarket "design "

This store is on the edge of town and smaller than the proposed Crosby store

Wikipedia-

The core 'Main Mission' store format, which is a typical Sainsbury's supermarket, is between 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m²) and 48,000 sq ft (4,500 m²). The average size of a Sainsbury's supermarket is 34,000 sq ft (3,200 m²),

Unlikely source of information but some VERY interesting comments on the store here!

http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tno=104&fid=297&sty=2&act=1&mid=2120776618

Sainsbury's opens new store in Colne

8th July 2010

SAINSBURY'S opened a new 46,000 sq ft store in the Lancashire town of Colne yesterday.
The supermarket chain has created 240 jobs at the shop which has been built on the site of the derelict former Coach House Antiques flanked by Windsor Street, Windy Bank and Norfolk Street.
Planning permission was granted in June 2008 the same year planners rejected proposals from Tesco for a different site.
Store manager Ian Collins said: "It is uplifting to know that this store has helped so many back into employment, morale is high and the team is ready to provide high service to all customers."
The store will sell clothes, homewares, and entertainment products as well as food. Critics have warned it will pull trade away from smaller retailers in the town.

From the Burnley Citizen 7/07/10

THE new Sainsbury’s supermarket has opened its doors in Colne today.Mayor of Pendle Coun Tony Beckett cut the ribbon at the 46,000 sq ft Norfolk Street store.

The store includes a 7,718 sq ft home department and a 8,256 sq ft clothing department.It boasts a cookshop and entertainment section, an under-store car park with 21 dedicated disabled spaces and 14 parent and child spaces, a café and a selection of self-scan tills along with main tills.

The supermarket also includes eco-friendly measures including a rainwater harvesting system to flush every one of its toilets.

Bosses at Sainsbury’s said they had worked hard to build strong links with the local community.

18 per cent of its 240 workforce were previously seeking Job Seekers Allowance and a further five per cent being out of work for more than six months.

The store’s manager, Ian Collins, has worked for Sainsbury’s for 20 years and is the former manager of the Lancaster branch.

He said: “We’ve been really looking forward to opening in Colne and welcoming residents to our new store.

“It is uplifting to know that this store has helped so many back into employment.

“Morale is high and the team is ready to provide high service to all customers.”

In the build-up to the official opening, the store had been working with schoolchildren in the borough, them about how it is working to reduce its carbon footprint.

Pupils from Blacko Primary School also took part in a poster competition and the winning design will be turned into a permanent sign in the recycling area of the car park.

Local charities can apply for a Sainsbury’s Local Heroes grant.

People in Colne can also get involved by selecting their favourite local charity to become the store’s new Local Charity Of The Year partner.

Once the charity is selected, the store will take part in fundraising activities over one year to support their chosen charity.

Opening hours are 7am to 11pm from Monday to Saturday and 11am to 5pm on Sunday.

The Burnley Express 18/06/10

Colne Sainsbury's controversial 'Hollywood' sign to be taken down

published Date: 18 June 2010

SUPERMARKET giant Sainsbury's has been ordered to bring down its controversial signs from the roof of its new Colne store after angry residents compared them to the huge Hollywood Hill's landmark.

People living opposite the Windsor Street store told Pendle councillors the large orange lettering "completely destroys" the "iconic" view they used to have of Pendle Hill.

New Oxford Street resident Maria Yewdall said: "If this sign is allowed to remain, it would consign our views of Pendle to history."

Elsie Holmes, of Windsor Street, added: "Why does a building - the biggest in Colne - require two huge signs like something from Hollywood?"

Sainsbury's planning agent Nicole Thompson said the signs were needed to compete against rival stores such as Asda in Colne and Morrison's, Nelson.

She said: "Signs such as this are a part of supermarkets whether we like them or not. The size of them is necessary so we can see them from far away and we rely on stores being visible."

Ms Thompson also denied the banner was two metres tall, claiming this was only the height from the roof line to the top of the structure, and offered to reduce the height of the fixings to lower the signs.

But Colne and District councillors were already unhappy supermarket bosses had given the go-ahead for the two-metre high sign to be erected on the east and west elevations of the building, before hearing the outcome of their planning application.

Coun. Tony Greaves said: "Although this is completely legal, it is not the way for a new supermarket to make friends in Colne."

He added: "It is ludicrous to say people going past won't know there is a Sainsbury's there."

Councillors agreed to refuse permission for the two signs in line with the planning officer's recommendation and ordered talks between Sainsbury's, residents and planning officials over the remaining directional signs.

Case officer Kathryn Hughes said in a report to the committee the signs would be detrimental to the visual amenity of the area, creating "inappropriate" and "unduly obtrusive" features.

Speaking after the meeting, she said it was not yet known whether Sainsbury's would appeal the decision. She added: "We don't know if there will be an appeal at this stage, but we will be having a meeting with Sainsbury's next week to discuss the other signs.

"If the signs are not removed, we would have to consider enforcement action. But with the store opening in three weeks' time, I would expect to see Sainsbury's resubmit new plans and an appeal at the same time."

Lancashire Telegraph May 2009

Work on site of Colne Sainsbury's begins

· By Kate Turner »Reporter

DEMOLITION work has started on the site where the new Sainsbury’s store will be built.

The former Coach House Antiques site in North Valley Road, Colne, was bulldozed earlier this week in preparation for work to begin constructing the new store.

The supermarket, which is set to create 320 new jobs, will begin to take shape in the coming months and it is expected that it will take a year to complete. Jo Try, regional development executive for Sainsbury’s said: “Demolition work on the existing site is progressing, and construction work is expected to start in the next few months. Construction is expected to take around a year, and the recruitment process will begin as the store nears completion.

“The new store will create up to 320 new full and part-time jobs. Sainsbury’s will work hard to ensure that as many of these jobs as possible go to the local community.”

It is estimated that 100 jobs created will be full time.

Planning permission for the venture was given the green light by council officials back in June 2008 after a store war broke out between Sainsbury and Tesco over the development of the site that is bounded by Windsor Street, Windy Bank and Norfolk Street.

The regular sized Sainsbury’s store, which is to take up 45,000 sq ft, has divided the community, with fears that it could decimate town centre trade and lead to further traffic on the already congested North Valley Road.

But bosses from the store believe that it will bring in trade worth an estimated £7 to £10 million.

Coun Howard Thomas, deputy chair of Pendle’s Colne and District Committee, said: “I think there was a little bit of concern when the recession started to bite that Sainsbury’s might hesitate, but they assured us that the plans would still go ahead.

"At least now we can see they are doing it.”

It's official - the majority oppose the current plans

2010-09-10T12:09:00.000+01:00

With the proposal deferred at the last planning meeting, it was important to re group and look at what had been achieved and what was left to do. Obviously, there will always be more to do, but we can certainly be happy with some recent events.

Firstly, Liverpool FC vice captain and Blundellsands resident Jamie Carragher backed Jamie to speak at the planning meeting which goes to show it doesn't matter who you are, everyone will be affected by this monstrous build.

Secondly, Frank Cottrell Boyce has added his voice to the opposition of Sainsburys. It's good to have two stalwarts of their profession within our ranks!

On top of this, and further proof that we are speaking for the majority is the support we receive from both Labour and Conservative local councillors - as well as our local MP. The flip side of this is of course the Liberal Demorcrat councillors who have vocally supported the proposed development stating "they are supporting the silent majority".

Though we always knew this statement was rubbish we were glad to see that the display and comment book in the Library (set up by the council itself) returned a verdict of 5 residents to 1 AGAINST the proposed development. But remember, this is against the current proposal, not Sainsbury's itself. This result surely means that the Lib Dems, who has stated they wish to support the 'majority' of resident, have now changed their opinion and have joined with Labour, Conservative and pretty much the whole community to oppose this proposal!

Further meetings have taken place between residents and Sainsbury's senior management, and to be honest it appears Mr Sainsburys DOESN'T actually care what the community thinks and said pretty much this in face to face meetings.

It has also been acknowledged that the proposed community centre (proposed for the roundabout of Moor Lane, Richmond Road and the Bypass) is actually just to conceal the ugly elevation that will be seen from the Moor Lane side - it just so happens they needed a use for the building so thought they'd call it a community centre (only for the first 10 years though - who knows what it will be after that!) - further evidence that being a valued member of the community isn't really high on their priorities.

So well done everyone, and for those still undecided, please remember, we're not against a new Sainsbury's being built - we're just against this particular proposal.

Finally, the planning meeting to decide the fate of this proposal will now take place at 6.30 pm this Wednesday (15th Septemeber 2010) at Crosby Civic Hall - please come along and stand up and be counted!!

So whats it all about??

2010-07-31T10:20:00.002+01:00

Welcome to our Blog, if you've not looked before.

So what is going on??

Simply we want Crosby Village to be a lot better than it is.
We are local people who have been stirred into action when we saw how damaging Sainsbury's proposals for their new supermarket would be -to see some images click here - This proposal is due to go to Planning Committee on 18th August for approval (!) by our councillors.

Over the last few months over 5000 local people have signed our petition, we also have a online version of - click here which will tell you what it is specifically campaigning for.

We have been discussing the issue with Councillors and our MP and we are buidling support for something better. Sainsbury's have said 'there is no alternative solution' and are trying to force their plans through - so we have proposed our own suggestion of an alternative, which still gives us a nice new big supermarket but wthout destroying the historic buildings or creating ugly new carparks everywhere - see (and download) our ideas CLICK HERE

We need all the help we can get before the 18th August and today should be fun with the LAST STAND FESTIVAL - please come to show your support for a better future for Crosby Village. A celebrity might be helping us at around 4.30pm.

Apart from all this stuff, this Blog is about Crosby more widely and if you look through old posts you might find a few things of interest - like where to get the best fish, or coffee in Crosby.

To the right hand side of this page you will also find links to other various stories and links about Sainsbury's and our campaign for them to do something better for Crosby.

If you would like to get involved please email us at abettercrosby@googlemail.com

Thank you for your interest.

Wouldn't it be good....

2010-07-09T00:29:00.002+01:00

... if, because the local community (ie all of us) has had to stand up and fight for Crosby Village, that in the future the Village was just better, more used, and more loved.

We insist that it has to become better, beacuse it really is sink or swim time for Crosby.

Sainsbury's current plans will destroy Crosby as a 'village' forever. We want Sainsbury's to invest in Crosby, but in a way that helps all of us.

Nearly everyone agrees with us, but some people say we don't have a chance against such a big business.
Now thousands of people have signed our petiton, leaders of the community are coming out to support the Village and the risks to Crosby are in the papers, and we've only just started.

We really want the Council and Sainsbury's to work with us, the 'Community', the ones who pay the taxes and buy the food. But just in case, in the background we are praparing legal/planning submissions with expert advice.

Man from Sainsburys, if you're reading this - and we think you are, please work with, and not against, a community that has supported your supermarket for many years.
You may have all the money and the land, but we've got the love and are having more fun.

See you at the LAST STAND FESTIVAL...31st July, Crosby Village.

2010-07-01T11:18:00.000+01:00

Whitewash!!

Hello,

If you are visiting this Blog site for the first time, having spotted us in today’s Crosby Herald – welcome.
Apart from the lastest Blog entries – if you search through the older postings in the Blog archive you may find items of interest.

Our campaign for ABetterCrosby, and against Sainsburys current proposals is described in the separate feature boxes.

Please add comments & your thoughts to any stories you like.

Regarding todays Herald front page, it is great that the 3d image of the new store showing the true size of it, has made the front page.
It is less great that the Herald decided to run the front page with the spin of Sainsbury’s , and we fear Sefton Council’s, view of the world.

We have a copy of the ‘experts’ report. WYG who wrote it are Sefton’s ‘retained retail consultants’, who advise them on all such matters. They are a massive international property/construction consultancy, who also happen to work directly for Sainsbury’s in other parts of the country. As a consultancy they also design supermarkets and highways/carparks for supermarkets. We all understand how difficult it is to have two different paymasters at work, and WYG are a part of the supermarket industry.

It is a bit like asking an arms-dealer how to resolve a war....

Regarding the report itself the opening paragraph describes the site of the new Sainsbury’s as a ‘Brownfield Site’. Maybe they have not been to Crosby for a while, most of their reports focus on Southport and Bootle, but the Glenns Buildings, Moor Lane Villas, or the historic centre of Crosby, are NOT in our opinion a Brown field site.
The report goes on to make numerous specific retail points which we dispute.

We would refer you to this report by a well established economic research group, which has led to the passing of the Sustainable Communities Act by Government. We believe this Act of Government can be used to help save Crosby.
http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/ghost-town-britain

We do not want a Ghost Town, we want a sustainable , local, community, and with it A Better Crosby.

We also have a copy of the Places Matter report referred to – we will send you a copy if you like -, again, reading it we do not believe it offers ‘broad support’ for the scheme.

Please email us at abettercrosby@googlemail.com if you would like to help us.

Sainsbury's Campaign News Update

2010-06-21T00:12:00.002+01:00

Important News - the Planning Committee - who will decide Crosby's fate, are walking round the village tomorrow (Monday 21st June) at 10.30am - if you are around go and find them (a group of about a dozen serious middle-aged looking people I imagine) and tell them what you think of the proposals.

We launched the paper petitions, which will also go to the Planning Committee, on Wednesday.
To date (ie 4 days later) we have distributed over 20 packs of petition information and guess how many signatures we know have got in 4 days ...

400+.... , and we only know how a few of the 20 + have got on, and we still have 27 more days left before we need to submit it to the council..
We will look on the Tescopoly website to see if we can find the record for the biggest anti-supermarket petition. This news carries a big health warning - just because the community are starting to realise what Sainsbury's are planning, and we don't like it, doesn't mean Sainsbury's will pay any attention to us. It will be a big fight to save Crosby...

Best fish update

2010-06-20T23:33:00.000+01:00

In total juxtaposition to the threats facing Crosby, the fish man in the Co-op /Summerfield car park off South Road keeps me vaguely cheerful.

Described in the first entry of this blog, I have now discovered his name is Alex The Fishman. I think Fishman is his actual surname, it's on his business card. He drives down from Fleetwood on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and sells truly fresh fish to anyone who wants it. Forget all those stupid adverts of celebrities pushing shopping trollies through fields or into harbours, this is the real thing.

Here he is.. I had his phone number, to suggest if there was anything you really wanted you could probably phone him, he would try and get it at the fish market in the morning and then drive it down for you. I've lost the number, and but perhaps he would like to be able to put a face to you before you started making orders, and he has loads of good stuff anyway, which he fillets there and then.
This is food shopping as a real service, and a pleasure to frequent.

Find him 9am til 12 Wed & Sat in the Co-operative car park. The Co-op living up to its name with its hospitality.

The comparison with most of our food shopping doesn't need to be made......

Exciting.....

2010-06-17T00:19:00.000+01:00

.. maybe because our paper petitions have just gone out in Crosby, the online petition has suddenly leapt forward ..

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/ABetterCrosby/stats/

if you sign the online one please add a comment too..

and also please look out for paper version in the village and door to door..

PS .. have just put 3 other Posts on the blog - review April, May, June for other information and stories..

Petition is go

2010-06-17T00:00:00.000+01:00

Apart from our online petition which is ticking along nicely, we have got our act together and prepared petition forms and distributed the first dozen or so around Crosby. Without intention we have got a real spread of everyone - shops - bars - cafes - senior citizens, families and students.

Each pack only aims to get 100 signatures - but 20 packs will get .. (do the sum..).. as they say 'every little helps'

Looking on the Tescoploy website, http://www.tescopoly.org/ , some of the successful campaigns get a couple of thousand signatures. Having been speaking to people for a while about Sainsbury's, and hearing near universal agreement that it ain't that great, we're sure we can get those kind of numbers ... hope we're right!

If you would like to help by collecting signatures just email abettercrosby@googlemail.com and include your address and we will send you a pack of forms, our letters explaining the problems with Sainsbury's and some pictures.

Good luck collecting names.....

Makes you think....makes you hungry....

2010-06-16T23:44:00.002+01:00

.. I was going to write a simplistic little piece on how Satterthwaites Pies are so nice, but then found their amazing website. ...
http://www.satterth.co.uk/history.html
Reading this, and in particular the last paragraphs, just about puts a lump in your throat.
It had not really struck me before, but with something such as a Satterthwaites Pie, which i always seem to buy mid-morning on a Saturday when a bit bleary and occasionally hung-over, much of the pleasure is not just in a very tasty pie but the whole experience - the 'lifestyle' choice of pie or cake eating if you like. Buying it from friendly staff in a small shop - queuing up with neighbours and everybody getting served in person is a good experience in itself. Quite unlike a miserable self-service supermarket which is now trying to get people to use automated tills, preventing the customer from having any human contact what-so-ever. Supermarkets working towards 'efficiency' less staff, less personal service, less jobs.

The website explains why the pies taste so nice - fresh and local and no machines - real sustainability.

http://www.satterth.co.uk/pies.html

... the health 'warning' is another reminder of how to live a happy life - eat a few pies and then get on with some heavy labour - dig a trench or something - or a bit (a lot, if like me you sometimes have two pies) of gardening - to burn it off. Certainly beats driving down the motorway to work on a computer, sat down all day with another sandwich in a box for lunch. I might start a gardening business - just to eat more pies.
It is Satterthwaites Centenary year.

OOPS -Our facebook has blown up..

2010-06-13T21:17:00.001+01:00

Being a bit social networking naive - Abettercrosby Stopping Sainsbury's - was set up as a person / friend - we have now been blocked by Facebook either because we were inviting too many people to join or because we did not have a name - (unless you are a corporate conspiracy theorist. - Anyway we will rebuild as a group and go from there... we had got up to 350 members - but we have everyones name on our email account so will regroup..

Search Facebook for the same Abettercrosby as we will go from there..

Our Letter to Crosby Herald and all Councillors

2010-06-13T01:32:00.004+01:00

The future of Crosby Village

Dramatic as it sounds, the nature of Crosby Village for the next 25 years and beyond is going to be decided this summer, probably in the next 5 weeks.

With vision it could be regenerated as an attractive bustling centre in the day, with thriving restaurants and bars in a much safer environment at night. But right now it is more likely that about half of the recognisable village will be destroyed and replaced with multistory car parks and a huge supermarket, providing the final nail in the coffin for the few local businesses that remain.

Sainsbury’s is the most important shop in the village but it’s proposal to build a new store more than 3 times bigger than the existing one will damage the village beyond repair.

Sainsbury’s want a store so big that they can only fit it in by destroying most of Moor Lane and building right across this historic route, which is the birth place of Crosby at its junction with Liverpool Road. They want to bring so many more cars to Crosby Village that most of the remaining space in it becomes 2 or 4 storey carparks and they even lift their new supermarket off the ground, up to first floor, to get more cars under it. People in the village will have to use moving ramps to get in to it. The large and very high white box building Sainsbury’s propose belongs on a retail park, not in an historic village centre. Indeed Sainsbury’s want it to be 20% bigger than the ASDA in Bootle and they want a third of their new shop to sell clothes, books, stationary, homewares and electricals all directly completing with existing and potential smaller local businesses.

In their publicity Sainsbury’s say they will create 11 other new shops in the village. They do not so clearly mention that they are knocking down 12 (?? TBC) of the existing shops on Moor Lane. Although Sainsbury’s say they will ensure that the village keeps its Post Office and specialist chemist, even now just 5 weeks before the Council is due to review the plans, there is nowhere for any of the businesses on Moor Lane to relocate into whilst the new Sainsbury’s is built. This would leave these local traders with no business premises for at least 18 months, by which time they may well have gone bust. The businesses affected are Satterthwaites, Blues Bar, Lloyds Chemist, ... TBC...

We wonder if Satterthwaites lost their oldest shop, in the heart of Crosby, for this length of time that their entire business might be at risk of going bust in the current recession. Imagine that.

The combination of halving the number of shops in the village whilst disrupting the rest of them with the construction of the new supermarket for more than a year, and then a big ‘retail park’ Sainsbury’s increasing its direct competition with many local retailers really could kill off the idea of the village as the local centre. Some people have joked it will be Sainsburyville.

Yet for all this Sainsbury’s is a good grocer and essential to Crosby’s future. We have a positive vision where a new bigger, better Sainsbury’s store contributes to the true regeneration of the whole village with an attractive new building which could be more than twice as big as the existing store, but not three and a half times bigger as they are currently proposing. This might sound like little difference but Sainsbury’s have a very aggressive national expansion programme, and they seem to have hardly any interest in their actual impact in real local communities, and they say they will not now reconsider their proposals. Their business target is to catch up with Tescos.

Sefton Council has no plans of their own for Crosby and appear to have let Sainsbury’s have free run whilst developing their inappropriate proposals. The traders in Crosby are very worried but are working to maintain their businesses in the short term and are trapped, not wanting to upset their landlord – Sainsbury’s.

So that leaves us…and you.

There is a recession, but there is also a future, especially for the young people of Crosby. What do we want Crosby to be like in 25 years time?, and right now, for the next 5 weeks what are we going to do about it?

We have formed a campaign group, ABetterCrosby, (search online - all one word). We understand the Planning Process and how to work with it to get Sainsbury’s current plans rejected at the Planning Committee on 21^st July. We have a strategy of action up to this vital Planning meeting. We are able to draw on the advice of the experts who designed and built Liverpool ONE. In the week since our Facebook group started we have gained over 300 supporters, and over 1000 people have already joined a separate group to ‘Save Crosby’.

Behind their adverts Sainsbury’s are a big commercial corporation and they won’t change their plans readily, we need all the help we can get.

Will you help us?

Jamie

for

ABetterCrosby.

Do supermarkets look better down South?

2010-06-07T22:08:00.002+01:00

Following on from a Facebook conversation, thanks to Maureen, this is Waitrose in Sevenoaks...

.. yes you've got it, hiding behind the hanging basket.

Nice and dicrete and apparently it's a big shop with a multistorey carpark in behind there somewhere.

This is the beginning of an exercise trying to see if there is a trend that supermarkets down South are nicer to look at than those in the North. Now why might that be??

Heres another example .. in Kent, ...http://www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/sainsbury-supermarket-deal, and another in posh Ludlow http://www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/tesco-ludlow

Conversely I have heard the new Sainsbury's in Colne, up past Blackburn is a real howler, a white box above a car park......

Anybody got any more interesting sightings?

ALERT - Moldy Peaches at Moose Coffee

2010-05-31T00:27:00.001+01:00

Another sunny Sunday in Crosby looking for a bit of pleasure.

Ended up in Moose Coffee, as we seem to every once in a while, and it was top.

Crosby is never going to win a 'Cosmopolitan suburb of the year' award and can sometimes feel a bit samey, but if you're eating delicious waffles, coffee in hand and reading about second-homophobia in the papers (poor Mr Laws) what more could you need for a reviving afternoon?

They didn't have any actual moldy peaches, in fact I'm not sure if they had any fruit at all - Moose Coffee is not the place for dieting and you need to be in good shape to knock down platefuls of lovely bagels, eggs, pastrami, cheese, ice cream, chocolate spread, maple syrup and more eggs. But hey... you could always borrow some wheels from Crosby Cycles and bike it home. I imagine frequent visitors must all weigh 20 stone - but perhaps that is part of the genuine American feel. I think we would be more regular (visiting Moose) if they had some salad, on which note the toilets are clean and spacious, and the staff attentive and friendly, even to pesky 3 year old kids.

I would honestly recommend anything from the menu, but the pastrami bagel is great - blueberry pancakes and vanilla milkshake to follow perhaps?

Regarding mold I think they actually have 5 stars for cleanliness in that rather weird Sefton Council hygiene award scheme. The Moldy Peaches actually provided some suitably groovy American/New York background music helping the vibe, and if I knew lots about computers I would make their songs play here - http://www.myspace.com/themoldypeachesfans/music-player?sindex=2.2&shuffle=true&amix=false&pmix=false&plid=28974&artid=12227320&sseed=1468&ptype=3&stime=0&ap=1&rpeat=false
If this works you might like the first song, but 'Who's Got the Crack?' could be a gentle anthem to hum as you mill around Crosby looking for other cheap thrills....

http://www.moosecoffee.co.uk/

http://www.crosbyherald.co.uk/news/crosby-news/2010/01/28/help-crosby-shops-get-through-a-tough-trading-year-68459-25700034/

Sainsburys can afford better

2010-05-29T23:26:00.002+01:00

We heard someone say that Sainsbury's could not afford to do anything better than the pile of white tosh they are proposing for Crosby Village, because of the recession and all that. You know.... the property market has collapsed and nobody has any money, etc etc, wouldn't you be pleased if anybody made any investment in your community now??

Well we all need to eat, which is what makes supermarkets such a win, win, win deal for their owners. Things have to be really bad before the rest of us stop buying food.

Sainsbury's recent full year financial results 2010, http://www.igd.com/analysis/channel/news_hub.asp?channelid=1&channelitemid=14&nidp=&nid=6842 , report a 17.5% increase in profits to £610 million, on £19.96 billion sales.....hmmmm. Considering most of us are pleased to still have a job or be breaking even, it seems like the supermarkets are laughing all the way to the bank as others, like local businesses, fall by the wayside.

Sefton Council had budgeted gross revenue expenditure of £546m for 2008/9, and from the governmental news we imagine this might be the high water mark for sometime. So yes, Sefton's entire annual budget for all our local public services is less that Sainsbury's annual profits. With these kind of figures big corporations surely must pay more than lip service to their social responsibilities.

Going back to Sainsbos big profit numbers - reading their exciting annual report 2009 http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/ar09/ states they have 16,191,000 square feet of sales area in the country. Their proposed new Crosby store at 50,000 square feet (20% bigger that the nice new ASDA in Bootle which is 41,100 sq ft) will only be 0.3% of that national total - but 0.3% of £19.9 billion sales is still a whole truck load of money (£61m sales per year with nearly £2 million profit per year). With these figures, and the amount of money we have put through their tills in Crosby for years, you would really think they would pay the local community a little more respect with the quality of their proposals. After all as they claim in their annual report.....

....... their own goals 3,4 & 5 are surely relevant to development projects and in terms of their current idea of 'making a positive difference to our community' .. frankly it's corporate BULLS**T.

Sainsbury's people - PLEASE TRY HARDER, your not 'Making Sainsbury's great again'

Birkdale

2010-05-20T10:19:00.000+01:00

Getting even more tenous now, but its only 3 stops on the train. This is an amazingly great bistro .. go.

the sea, the sky

2010-05-20T10:14:00.000+01:00

Stating the bleeding obvious this, but there cannot be that many places where you get sunsets like this, over a coast which is so close to most of us.

Maybe it's just volcanic ash or pollution from Runcorn, but every cloud......

Formby Pool

2010-05-20T09:47:00.001+01:00

Bear with us, this is not Crosby, but sometimes we have to stretch our wings, and one of the best things about Crosby is it's closeness to Formby, without being so dull perhaps. Bit of a dilemma really, Crosby should be wonderful, considering the coast, the train, the schools, the parks, the houses, the closeness to the city but it's not quite, why?

Anyways Formby has lots of lovely things, and apart from the Pine Woods their swimming pool must be one of the loveliest it the country. Swimming there, with their clever changing rooms and views to the park outside, feels like a little Scandinavian oasis.

Better still swimming for kids and the over 60's is free after 2pm at the weekends (or at least it was last time we went).

Compare and contrast to the rather strange spaceship/shuttlecock, round outside, pool shaped inside disappointment that is Crosby Pool - with its ridiculous crap cafe - didn't anyone notice it was next to a BEACH when they built it, and that it could have been NICE.

Welcome to A Better Crosby

2010-04-11T09:09:00.000+01:00

So this is about where we live.

Crosby, Merseyside, England and what kind of place it is, and what it could be.

Day One of starting this site and already lots of people have signed our petiton.

Hopefully this is just the beginning..

Saturday Mornings - Best Fish!!

2010-04-10T10:58:00.000+01:00

So its Saturday.
The best fish in Crosby is available this morning, and Wednesdays from the man with the white van in the Co-op car park on Brighton Road, just off South Road. Don't know what he is called but he comes down from Fleetwood with lovely fish straight out of the sea at good prices. If Jamie Oliver ever came round he'd be going all cor-blimey-govn'r...