Morrisons announce plans for new West Watford store (From Watford Observer) - Watford Observer

Morrisons announce plans for new West Watford store (From Watford Observer) - Watford Observer

Morrisons announce plans for new store in Ascot Road, West Watford

10:22am Thursday 31st May 2012 in News By Mike Wright, Chief Reporter

The supermarket chain Morrisons has announced plans for a new store in West Watford, which could create 300 new jobs in the town.

The corporation is drawing up plans for the vacant Watford Royal Mail depot site in Ascot Road, which would also contain offices, new homes, a hotel and space for a potential new primary school.

Current proposals also show 450 new parking spaces will be provided in the new development.

Richard Haynes, Development Executive at Morrisons, said: “We want to transform the unsightly and now vacant Royal Mail site into one of our next generation foodstores, increasing affordable shopping choice in Watford and breathing life into the Ascot Road area, with new jobs, fresh food and a shoppers’ car park.”

The public will be able to view the plans at a two-day public exhibition to be held at the former Royal Mail site on Friday June 15 and Saturday June 16.

Comments(13)

TRT says...
11:07am Thu 31 May 12

Ooh, well, you can pop in there and buy some bits for a picnic before leaving the car and walking up to Cassiobury Park, then. TRT

njm211270 says...
11:15am Thu 31 May 12

Fab, just want West Watford needs more houses, more traffic, less school places, more time to wait for a doctors appointment, but hey ho we need to re-house people regardless of what effort they will put in to repaying society njm211270

Oxhey-Moron says...
11:17am Thu 31 May 12

[quote][p][bold]TRT[/bold] wrote: Ooh, well, you can pop in there and buy some bits for a picnic before leaving the car and walking up to Cassiobury Park, then.[/p][/quote]I might just be doing that in a couple of years! Oxhey-Moron

GeorgeRyan says...
12:22pm Thu 31 May 12

Personally think it's a great idea, any investment in the area is a good thing. May cut journeys of people going to Tesco, another good thing. GeorgeRyan

phall lover says...
12:40pm Thu 31 May 12

If its good enough for Richard Hammond and Take That LET IT SHINE phall lover

njm211270 says...
12:55pm Thu 31 May 12

Extra traffic, more pollution, not against a supermarket just the houses njm211270

steh says...
12:58pm Thu 31 May 12

[quote][p][bold]njm211270[/bold] wrote: Fab, just want West Watford needs more houses, more traffic, less school places, more time to wait for a doctors appointment, but hey ho we need to re-house people regardless of what effort they will put in to repaying society[/p][/quote]What a churlish comment. This is a positive regeneration of a now disused site by a respected UK owned company. The entire south east of England does need more houses you know? Repaying society? Is that in response to the affordable housing comment? Don't be ridiculous. steh

Andrew1963 says...
1:12pm Thu 31 May 12

Its a large out of town hypermarket - sounds like another blow to local shops in Croxley and West Watford. Can't see how this will help the town centre - especially viability of Sainsburys in Albert road. If that store closed perhaps it could be converted into a town centre cinema? As Watford council own the land they can say no to the Supermarket if they want to. Andrew1963

TRT says...
1:27pm Thu 31 May 12

There's already a Budgens near there, albeit a tiny one. Good baguettes, Budgens. TRT

Mike Watford says...
4:08pm Thu 31 May 12

Good. More jobs. Should be less traffic. Won't need to drive from west watford to tescos now! Mike Watford

TRT says...
4:56pm Thu 31 May 12

Will there be a petrol station there too, I wonder? TRT

Andrew1963 says...
8:54pm Thu 31 May 12

Morrisons at Queensbury has a petrol station so probably yes. The Ricky road lost a petrol station and the shell one in Croxley is always packed so i guess they will want one. 300 part time retail jobs not to be sniffed at but hardly the hi-tec manufacturing everyone says we need to rebalance the economy.Mind you the sorting office was really a warehouse so analogous. What we need is a link from Tolpits lane to Caxton way so Holywell estate residents can get to these new proposed facilities. Andrew1963

G_Whiz says...
11:52pm Thu 31 May 12

All the stories we get concerning the desperation for a new secondary school in Watford - Why is that not being considered? And yep - we are overpopulated in Watford, Maybe the council is running some kind of self destruct policy? Also as jobs go all the stores around that area, CoOp, Budgen and Tesco employ staff from Harrow for some reason? But give Morrisons their due - they are a good employer and run great training programmes, and can offer good careers if you stick at it! G_Whiz

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Source: www.watfordobserver.co.uk

Morrisons set for upmarket makeover and moves online? - money.aol.co.uk

Forget beef pies and pasties. Think dill drizzle, high class wines and balsamic blueberries. Morrisons has signalled it is intending to revamp its Home Counties supermarket stores with a stylish makeover and a bigger presence - 60% of its new outlets will be in the south.

Is this a convincing move upmarket for the Bradford grocer?

The (not so) common touch

It will need to be if Morrisons, a store better known for no-nonsense cooked meat products and value-for-money basics, wants to compete with the likes of Ocado and Waitrose. Morrisions is also paving the way for a move online.

New stores are being built in Croydon, Harrow and Colindale, North London. The next three years will see its southern presence bring an extra two million households within a 15 minute drive of its stores, it claims.

But any move upmarket will need to be carefully choreographed given the huge pressure many consumers are under. "We are seeing shoppers skipping meals so they can save cash to feed their children," Morrisons boss Dalton Philips told the Mail. "They are hiding treats around the house to ration them through the week, dipping into savings and recycling their clothes."

Online presence

Not the kind of customer profile which typically splashes out on £15 bottles of wine or lamb shanks with redcurrant and rosemary jus. Yet.

There is also intimations from the Morrisons boss that the supermarket is set to make a significant foray into online retail. The move online is being aided by a 10% stake in US food website FreshDirect - boss Dalton Philips confirmed Morrisons staff had learnt much from a recent Stateside FreshDirect visit.

"Multi-format, multi-channel" is just one of the phrases peppered on a Morrisons press briefing, plus "experiential over purely functional" and "skills not just drills". There's ambition behind the jargon.

More stories

• Supermarket 'offers' shamed by Which?
• £3.59 budget wine trumps £30 competition
• 53% break the law to save money

Source: money.aol.co.uk

Councillor Ken Gregory cautioned for 'get Aids' voicemail - BBC News

31 May 2012 Last updated at 15:34 ET

A Tory councillor who left a message saying "with a bit of luck you'll get Aids" on another councillor's phone has been cautioned by police.

Ken Gregory, a member of Thanet council in Kent, received a caution for malicious communications on Wednesday.

John Worrow, who is bisexual and an Independent on Thanet District Council, received the voicemail message on his mobile phone earlier in May.

Mr Gregory has been suspended from the Thanet council Conservative group.

'Cannot possibly remain'

Mr Worrow said: "Last night I received a telephone call from an inspector from Kent Police confirming that Councillor Ken Gregory is the person who committed a homophobic hate crime against me in the form of a voicemail.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

There is absolutely no justification whatsoever for that kind of behaviour”

End Quote John Worrow

"As Mr Gregory cannot possibly remain a member of the Conservative Party or a member of Thanet District Council after saying 'With a bit of luck you'll get Aids', I feel that a caution should be punishment enough.

"My colleagues and I hope that this has not triggered a hate campaign.

"There is absolutely no justification whatsoever for that kind of behaviour towards anyone regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexuality and I expect a full apology at the next council meeting."

A spokesman for Kent Police said: "A 59-year-old man from the Ramsgate area was given a caution yesterday for an offence of malicious communications."

In April, Thanet District Council became the first local authority in Kent to officially support the government's proposals for same-sex marriage.

Independent Councillor Ian Driver moved the motion in support of equal marriage and said he hoped it would encourage other Kent councils to follow its lead.

'Complete ignorance'

A statement issued by Conservative Councillor Bob Bayford, shadow leader of the hung council, said: "It has come to my attention that Councillor Ken Gregory has received a police caution for an offence against another council member.

"The Thanet District Council Conservative group demands the highest standards of conduct from its members and I have decided to suspend group membership from Councillor Gregory with immediate effect, pending further consideration of the situation."

Paul Rollins, from the gay campaign group Thanet Pride, said Mr Gregory's comments showed "complete ignorance of the Aids issue".

He said: "This sort of homophobic behaviour is an insult to the general community rather than people who are just gay and lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

"I find it appalling that an elected representative would use a cowardly and illegal phone message to try to get some strange point across."

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Drama queen! Murray makes a meal of injuries, blasts Wimbledon legend Wade - Daily Mail

By Mike Dickson

PUBLISHED: 18:41 EST, 31 May 2012 | UPDATED: 18:45 EST, 31 May 2012

Andy Murray hit back at Wimbledon legend Virginia Wade after she accused him of acting like a 'drama queen' during his remarkable comeback win in the second round of the French Open.

The British No 1 was angered by her commentary after he suffered back spasms during his 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Jarkko Nieminen and said: 'She has no idea how I was feeling on court. She doesn't know what was happening 20 minutes before when I went out on court. I know how I felt on the court.

In trouble: Murray received treatment in the first set after struggling with back pain

'And then you have people like that who always come out and say something controversial, when really they should be supportive or maybe ask me a question before commenting.

'I've known her since I was really young, so that's quite disappointing. I don't see what the point would be in play-acting, going down 6-1, 4-2.'

Murray woke with a stiff back and suffered spasms after he got up from his chair for the fourth game. The effects took around an hour to go and he maintained he had nearly not started the match and was close to quitting after the first set.

Flat out: The British No 1 lost the opening set 6-1

But Wade, the last Brit to win a Wimbledon singles title, felt he was overplaying his discomfort. She said on Eurosport: 'I have sympathy that his back is bad but I have more for the other guy as you cannot play against someone who is being a drama queen. I don't think it is intentional, but he feels so sorry for himself he has no control over the fact he is not acting in an adult way.

'I would like him to deal with it without looking like he was quitting. It does not do him any favours to then annihilate his opponent. Nieminen got distracted.'

Back from the brink: Murray came from behind to beat Nieminen at Roland Garros

Concern: Kim Sears watches her partner play on

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Source: www.dailymail.co.uk