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An artist's impression of the Westgate plans that would bring a new cinema and Morrisons supermarket to Aldershot
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Last chance to comment on Aldershot cinema plan

By Pete Castle
March 16, 2010

PEOPLE have just days left to comment on plans for a cinema, hotel and supermarket development in Aldershot.

The Westgate plan, which will include a seven-screen Cineworld cinema, a Morrisons supermarket, restaurants, and a 91-bed Travelodge budget hotel, was submitted to planners on February 9.

People who either want to support or object to the plans have until Wednesday, March 24 to get their comments in to Rushmoor Borough Council planners.

Cllr John Marsh, chairman of the council's planning committee that will rule on the plans, said he was hoping that the application would be decided at a meeting at the council's Farnborough offices before the end of April.

Petitions

The application has proved controversial, with the owners of the Wellington Centre and Galleries shopping centres organising a campaign to try and stop it. They argue that another supermarket will suck crucial trade out of Aldershot town centre, where a fifth of shops are already empty.

But the scheme's supporters say that a new cinema and leisure facilities will revitalise Aldershot town centre, and the Morrisons supermarket will provide a welcome competition to the Tesco store that currently enjoys a monopoly over supermarket trade in the town.

Online petitions both for and against the scheme have already attracted thousands of signatures, with a petition supporting the application, organised by an Aldershot resident, attracting 1,142 signatures. Another petition, set up a the owners of the Wellington Centre, has attracted 45 signatures, although its organisers say hundreds more have been collected in person at shops in the town centre.

To sign either petition, or register your official support or opposition to the plans, click on the links on the right.

For more on this story, see the Aldershot News & Mail, out on Friday March 19.

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where the hell do you guys walk around in Aldershot then? I am at work monday to friday I grant you - but I go into town at the weekend - have done for the past god knows how many years - and I have not seen this... please let me know where you see it!!!

sharona, Aldershot
15/04/2010 at 15:22

Mdurant you are spot on ! its there every day for all to see !

Outermongolian
31/03/2010 at 18:59

sharona, i think you maybe in be in denial, or dont go in to town much, everywhere i walk in town i see junkies and drunks, I to have lived in the area for well over 25 years. I have friends who have been beaten up by drunks,friends who have been even had JUNKIES spit in there face for just walking down the wrong road, Seen junkies fighting each other in the street at 2pnm in the aternoon and beating up shop owners in the earlie evening, Do you think the group of people who hang around certain streets in large groups are outside certain pubs in the area are there because they love the town? i dont think so! they are there drinking and waiting to get there next hit with their dole money, that YOU and I are paying for!

Mdurrant, aldershot
30/03/2010 at 13:48

they should never have shut the old cinema in the first place!

kevin1, fleet
27/03/2010 at 20:40

Farnborough did have a cinema and was closed because it wasn't used. The cinema was where the sunday carboot is now.

Sylvia kimber
26/03/2010 at 20:39

Why - because they closed our last remaining one years ago with a promise of a new one very soon.... its about time we got it! and besides... its not a contest.... i would happily support one in Farnborough too.

sharona, Aldershot
25/03/2010 at 10:37

They should re develop what was the designer centre, there are so many empty shops, why build new, also why should Aldershot get another cinema when Farnborough been waiting years to get their 1st one ever.

wendywoo, Cove
23/03/2010 at 15:37

i like to say that the wellington centre management have a nerve to conduct their campaign apposing the westgate complex when they have left half of the centre unused for years and have done more to drive shoppers away that anyone else.

BJ ALDERSHOT
19/03/2010 at 10:42

i think its a good idea if we do have a cinema because aldershot has said that they would make our town bigger and more better but what i find is so silly and unfair on other people is that some people who live in aldershot don't even want to have new places built there all they want is it to be dull and boring

Cindy brown
18/03/2010 at 18:53

There are bad elements wherever you go - if you dont like living in Aldershot - move!!

sharona, Aldershot
18/03/2010 at 15:35

Im with Sharona on this one MDurrant, Aldershot people are not junkies or horrible in anyway. http://www.gethampshire.co.uk/news/s/2066523_sex_with_dog_aldershot_couple_jailed_for_rape

Air Bear, Aldershot
18/03/2010 at 12:01

The reason the Galleries is closed is because they have not been looked after. This is not Rushmoor's fault. I have lived in Aldershot for 36 years and get frustrated when people - particularly residents make suggestions that Aldershot is full of "junkies" - every town has that element and I cant say I see it - not wandering around town anyway...

sharona, Aldershot
18/03/2010 at 08:22

dont get me wrong sharona, its a great idea to bring all these things in to aldershot, but the chances of it ending up just like the extention to the wellington centre (the gallery) and the arcade empty are very HIGH!

Mdurrant, aldershot
17/03/2010 at 11:02

Mdurrant - what a ridiculous comment - if you have nothing sensible to say perhaps you should say nothing at all.

sharona, Aldershot
16/03/2010 at 20:49

Perhaps rather than stopping this, the owners of The Galleries and Wellington Centre should try getting some shops to open, then people wouldn't need to look elsewhere. Every week it seems another shop becomes empty and the whole area needs new life and cleaning up. If the town centre had decent shops and nice areas people would naturally go there....even Farnborough is beginning to look better with the new work being doen there after years of neglect.