Sainsbury’s N16 – If you build it they will come

Destination Stoke Newington: Sainsbury’s is on its way (whether we like it or not, according to Rab MacWilliam). Photograph: Graham Richardson

Bluster and protest as they might, Stokey Local have lost the battle over the Stoke Newington Sainsbury’s.

I admire the efforts of Stokey Local, and their attempts to maintain this parish’s post-medieval, maypole-dancing spirit of ruddy-faced blacksmiths, independent shops with frosted windows catering to all our needs and old boys with straw in their mouths supping tankards of ale on the village green.

Meanwhile, all around us reel shadows of indignant multinationals attempting to land on our unspoilt little paradise, while creating the preconditions for ruin for our many trusted small retailers.

Well, think again. If Sainsbury’s really want to build a supermarket somewhere, then they will.

No amount of indignation, dressing up as insects or signing of petitions will affect anything.

Insect fancy dress: Protestors unite on a ‘Bug Parade’ against another Sainsbury’s store in Stoke Newington: Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

Corporations run the world, and what they want, they will generally get. As for the impact on local small businesses, my discussions with several of these reveal at least an equivocation and frequently a guilty approval of the arrival of the behemoth. The eccentric and often expensively indulgent offerings of many of these small shopkeepers will suffer little or no negative impact.

Yes, but what about the small food stores, who will be in direct competition? Was it not Stokey Local who conducted a survey which revealed that these outlets are cheaper and offer better quality than Sainsbury’s? And nobody can tell me that, for instance, the Mediterranean stores on the High Street, with its enviably diverse range of foods, will be affected one iota.

The arguments that Sainsbury’s will kill off local businesses do not add up, while it could be said that many of them may benefit from the increased trade which will arrive in its wake.

I accept that the impact of Sainsbury’s on the local infrastructure  could be damaging, with huge articulated lorries pounding down the crumbling streets, traffic jams and even more parking concerns. This now becomes a matter for Hackney Council and Transport for London. How many times over the years has Church Street been dug up, resurfaced and then dug up again? Too many to suggest competence. Maybe it is time it was finally repaired properly.

People are also wakening up to the realisation that, in Abney Park, we possess one of the finest and most historically important cemeteries in the country, and suddenly there is outrage about the edge of the Park being ‘overshadowed’. The latest plans suggest the development will have marginal impact on Abney Park.

If it were otherwise, I would be the first to the barricades.

So are the opponents of the Sainsburys scheme making a fuss over nothing? In principle, no: they hold genuine opinions which are worthy of discussion.

But I feel that their undoubted energy and concerns for the area could better be channelled into the fight against poverty, homelessness, savage rent increases, welfare and health cuts and the creeping privatisation of education, rather than wasting their efforts in attempting to prevent the inevitable.

They’ll probably themselves be shopping at the new Sainsbury’s within three months anyway.