Jill Loorham, Castlemaine
I hope the councillors of our fair town will realise, before it’s too late, that supermarkets are not generally beautiful, nor are the car parks surrounding them.
The location of the site mooted for the new supermarket shows a glaring lack of care and concern for the safety of drivers and pedestrians and school children – and aesthetics. This supermarket will be an aesthetic abomination, an unlovely gateway to Castlemaine and a ghastly, blight on the Castlemaine landscape.
A supermarket, by the very nature of its use, is a bleak hub. In our world it is unfortunately a necessary necessity; it provides a means to purchase food. But beyond those needs, it is a fact that any crappy, unlovely piece of land could be THE perfect location for a supermarket to be built.
Looking at that crappy piece of land with an eye for the future, THAT new supermarket could be a well-planned, shady place. Trees planted throughout the car parks. Not a single storey building but a three-storey building with two levels specifically for lovely housing for older people, to enable shopping where they live. No need to get in the car to go to the supermarket. This new supermarket would adequate parking, recognising the likelihood of future growth of the town. It would be surrounded by undulating verges of shrubs and trees and raised vegetable gardens. This would truly be good town planning.
Some lateral thinking is essential before a dreadful mistake will result in Castlemaine being a lesser place if this unremarkable building (girt by bitumen and cars) gets built.