The Places Matter! Supermarket Forum took place on the 23 March. The invited audience comprised developers, agents, local authority officers and members of the Places Matter! Design Review Panel, primarily drawn from the Northwest.

Ian Parkinson, Martin Stockley, Tom Miller, Richard Woodford, James Black and Geoff Alsop

Martin Stockley, Chair, Places Matter! Design Review Panel, introduced the forum with a rallying cry for those present to participate in the debate on supermarket design. The aim of was to look at how towns and cities can benefit from working with the supermarket operators to get the best outcomes.

“It is not a new conversation, and should be the beginning of a bigger conversation that can be continued nationally. We are the people that can have an influence. Supermarkets are as much a reflection of our society as schools and hospitals. We have an involvement with them as designers, planners and consumers. Supermarkets are an integral part of the 21st Century and involve a huge investment of financial and human endeavour, and we need to ensure that development is done as well as possible.”

Richard Woodford, Partner HOW Planning, set the agenda with an overview from the retailer’s perspective and the currently and future policy context.

Retailers are of course in the business to make money. The factors in decision making for food stores are to make life simpler for the shopper, the shopping experience, but also to generate profit, be it through new floor space, products, online, and in places where people want to shop from petrol stations, local and metro stores, stations and major out of town stores. They have and need strong brands for easy recognition and brand allegiance.

Supermarket Forum Q & A

Tom Miller, Retired Head of Planning, Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council outlined his experiences as a Head of Planning and focussing in particular on a development in the heart of Neston. Neston is a small market town in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester located on the part of the Wirral Peninsula. It is a town where the customer retention was only 29% whereas the national average is nearer 70%, most people shopped elsewhere. The community, although not the existing retailers, did not want change or a new supermarket in their town. The Council’s approach was to be proactive, use a plan led approach and work in partnership with the supermarket developers to get the best result for boosting the economy of the town but also in design terms.

Geoff Alsop, Managing Director, Buttress Fuller Alsop Williams and Regional Chair RIBA NW, then outlined the next stage of the process. Their approach was very much about the town centre, not just the supermarket. The architects undertook an initial townscape study, the site is within a conservation area, and developed a 3D model which enabled them to develop a quite detailed design brief and test the massing against the site constraints.

James Blake, Associate Director, RSK Environment gave an overview of the sustainability requirements that supermarkets need to adhere to and are beginning to embrace.

For a full summary of the day including a transcript of the Q&A session involving all speakers and questions from the floor, please download the attached PDF of the Supermarket Forum Event Summary at the bottom of this page.

If you would like to request a CD of the speakers presentations from the day please email info@placesmatter.co.uk or call 0151 703 0135.

Attachment	Size
Places Matter! Supermarket Forum Event Summary	61.42 KB
Places Matter! Foodstore Paper	2.7 MB