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Monday, February 10, 2025
HomeDorset WestWaitrose takes the mickey out of Poundbury…

Waitrose takes the mickey out of Poundbury…

Posh people’s supermarket Waitrose is about to bring mayhem to the residents of Poundbury, people who often aspire to live here precisely because of the supermarket and the social cachet it brings. 

The Little Waitrose has closed for a week, no doubt causing many of the chattering classes psychological issues as they now have to drive to Dorchester to get their Prosecco and Sicilian parmesan. The Second Coming is less than a week away however as it has only closed to double in size and become a standard Waitrose. 

Where this is exciting for many of the middle classes who live here – they can be seen to have a coffee in the bakery seating area in their new Barbour jackets and the pretty young PR types can ogle the builders working on the North East Quadrant – it is going to cause many people living in the immediate environs a lot of problems due to parking. 

I live in the ‘rough part’ of Poundbury, a back lane that has two private houses and five housing association houses. The locals sniff at my neighbour who valets cars outside his house – some even complained to the water company and Andy must now pay for water at commercial rates. I have been pretty blunt and direct toward someone we shall call Mr Anal who dislikes my parking my car in front of his house on Woodland Crescent. My response has been to park there whenever I can, and using my car only at weekends this leaves his blood pressure rather high… 

Mr Anal and I could become unlikely friends soon. Planning permission was granted for the new full sized supermarket with only a tiny plot of land given over to dedicated parking for the customers of the expanded shop. People will be able to park for free on Queen Mother’s Square, much as if Waitrose had built an out of town shopping centre. This already causes headaches on a weekday lunchtime as people crowd the place to get their overpriced ready meals.

What will happen now is that the overflow parking will be effectively around Woodland Crescent. People who live here will be denied the right to park outside their houses at peak times, not unlike locals around the football stadium in Luton on a Saturday afternoon. 

There will also be another problem – Waitrose in central Dorchester, a major draw to the town’s shopping street is almost certainly going to be closed due to competition with its Poundbury rival. Given the choice between driving slightly farther for free parking or having to fight through the horror and mayhem of the Charles Street parking zone in the centre, the fickle chattering classes will almost certainly choose Poundbury. This will cause damage to the small traders who make the Dorchester shopping experience as wonderful and unique as it is. From what I have seen, the council doesn’t give a monkey’s cuss for those little people and would be happier to have another clone town like Poole or Bournemouth rather than the small businesses there presently. This is shown in their contempt for parking space in the town and a number of other silly decisions.

I am a somewhat reluctant resident of this suburb. I have inherited my home and due to awkwardness cannot move to a better part of Dorset. We briefly had the house on the market and an upper middle class executive turned his nose up at the place because of the housing association properties. This made me laugh as the families in those homes are far more real, and people I can far more readily identify with than the likes of Mr Anal. The architecture while really brilliant in the first Phase 1 section, has degenerated into something akin an idealised middle class suburb of London in Phase 2. Much of Poundbury looks and feels up its own backside.

However, Poundbury has a problem – the shop that so many people identify with as part of their middle class id is about to cause them major problems. It really is a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’…

Rich Shrubb

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