Costa Managing Director to come to Totnes
| 10 October, 2012 | Posted by notocosta under Campaign news |
We are delighted to be able to tell you that Costa Coffee Managing Director and colleagues will be meeting with Sarah Wollaston MP, Pru Boswell – Totnes Mayor, Transition Town Totnes and representatives from the NotoCosta campaign including an independent coffee shop owner. The meeting, which will take place later this week, will give us the opportunity to put the questions to them that have formed the backbone of our campaign and which are based in the deep concerns we have about the impact of having a Costa outlet in Totnes and what it will mean to our town in the longer term. Concerns such as those that:
• The shopfitters and the signmakers aren’t local — taking much needed revenue away from ours.
• The promised 12 jobs may not materialise and actually mean 5-6 part time ones — whilst costing more established local ones.
• None of their food sourcing will be done locally, again depriving local businesses of revenue in tough times and undermining our local food economy which employs so many.
• The impact of Costa’s stated goal of growth, growth, and more growth on small market towns like ours, that celebrate and depend upon their individuality and independence, will be hugely detrimental
Costa have made it clear that they will not come if they think that they will be met with protest and out of a desire to be able to meet and have a constructive dialogue with them we have agreed to that. However, in return we expect them to take our questions and requests, which show the strength of feeling of the town, very seriously.
At the meeting we will be representing you and want to be able to table your specific questions and share your views. If you could take five minutes out when you read this blog and put your thoughts to us by either commenting below, emailing us on info@notocosta.co.uk, tweeting us @notocosta or posting on our Facebook page we can gather together all this information and present it to the Managing Director of Costa Coffee when we meet.
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My questions are:
When will they announce that they will abandon their plans to open a shop in Totnes?
When will they announce their plans to cancel or close shops where there has been equally strong opposition?
When will they announce their new policy that they will no longer open shops where there is local opposition?
Thank you.
As a retail proprietor in Totnes I hear almost daily from visitors that they come here as we are a strongly individual town with many small independent shops and cafe’s.Where they live the character has been lost and all the shops are the same with Franchise clones everywhere. How so you propose your being here is going to prevent our town becoming just like any other?
How do you propose Costa to fit in aesthetically within the immediate vicinity.
We do not want Costa here on so many levels and I am totally against their bullying tactics. I will display anti costa info on my shop windows explaining our towns united views so visitors will know the strong feeling shared.
My questions:
What learnings have Costa Coffee gained from the storm of protest around proposed shop openings in Totnes, Southwold and elsewhere? Can the MD guarantee that in future the company will listen to and work with local communities INCLUDING concerned residents and engage with them earlier in the planning process, even if this means calling a halt to proposed store openings? How will this work in practice?
It is not relevant to the proposed store in Totnes but following the debacle in Bristol and elsewhere, what action will Costa Coffee take to ensure that their equity and franchise stores obtain the correct planning permissions for new stores PRIOR to opening.
I second Jay’s questions. If Costa are reading this, any store in Totnes WILL be met with protest.
Christine
I would like to ask Costa how their company opening a coffee shop in Totnes, an independent market town, where there are 24 coffee/tea shops and other outlets, will enhance the trading community of Totnes?
Also can they guarantee that the few jobs on offer will go to local people, i.e people from Totnes and that by opening they will actually not cause the loss of jobs and livelihoods?