Blog Archive
- We Have Moved
19th March 2009 - At Market Is Coming!
3rd December 2008 - Selsey Sea Festival - Local Produce Makes Its Mark
28th July 2008 - Meet Us at the Selsey Sea Festival - July 5th 2008
13th June 2008 - Butter Market News Is No News
23rd May 2008 - Chichester Lets the Council Know its True Feelings
24th April 2008 - My Open Letter to Chichester's Mayor
17th March 2008 - Time to reflect
1st January 2008 - A letter to the Observer
4th December 2007 - The community option for the Chichester Butter Market
23rd October 2007
A letter to the Observer
We have just sent a letter to the Chichester Observer to express our disquiet at some of the obvious failings in the selection process for the Butter Market redevelopment. Here is the gist of the contents:
The council’s recent decision regarding the redevelopment of the Chichester Butter Market has left us bitterly disappointed. Our proposal was openly supported by The Chichester Chamber of Commerce, the Chichester Society, Natwest Bank, the Royal Bank Of Scotland, the two largest organic producers in the Chichester area, many smaller local growers and local fisherman, the existing tenants,and numerous residents. We feel it offered the best combination of financial returns for the council, a variety of quality local produce for Chichester’s residents, and a fairer deal for local traders and producers.
What we find most disappointing, however, is that the council’s decision was based on what appears to be a flawed evaluation process. DTZ had been appointed to examine the separate proposals and recommend that which best met the council’s brief. Had our proposal been defeated by a rival who offered more to Chichester, then we could have simply licked our wounds and looked forward to a sympathetic restoration of the Butter Market. This is not the case.
The results of the public consultation phase were never publicised, and it is our belief there was no fit and proper collection of essential financial information about the developers and their proposals. In recent exchanges with DTZ, it is clear to us that many aspects of our proposal were either overlooked or misunderstood. As a result, we feel that the council has been ill-advised and there would have been a different outcome to the process had DTZ carried out their duty with the broader interests of local tax payers and the people of Chichester in mind
Stephen Baker and Derek Bond
One comment:
- daisy says:
2nd July 2008 at 9:16 amI was born in Chichester 60years ago and Im horrified at what is happening to it. I live elsewhere now and was just browsing for news about beautiful old Chi and see you are destroying even more of it. I remember the old market,the wonderful smell of Sharp Garland,Shippams,Jupps in the StPancras,I could go on but this is not progress to destroy everything. I loved the old 4main streets town, we have to progress but can we stop destroying on the way,