The Hendy Group has send leaflets out to residence under the guise of Public Consultation proposing to expand onto the site of the old council office, that is currently unused and was planned to be called Eastleigh Gateway and have offices on it.
Hendy want to build yet another showroom to ‘introduce two new motor brands’. They hint that they might sell electric vehicles.
They already have two substantial properties on Leigh road covering new and used vehicles from Ford, Mazda, Dacia, Renault, Honda and Mazda. As well as a workshop for Lotus and ‘Hendy performance’
This Public Consultant is prior to seeking planning permission.
Thanks for sharing, I notice @DazzaRPD posted this relevant post elsewhere too, with a copy of the leaflet:
Hendy Group have sent this to residents of Kipling Road (and probably others in the immediate vicinity, as they want to build a new dealership the other side of Villeneuve / St George’s Way
I am sure Eastleigh Borough Council will publish more details of the plans in due course.
Going off of the details in that leaflet; here’s hoping it’s refused! Eastleigh has access to several car showrooms already. This won’t bring wealth into the community it will extract it and the land could be put to far better use by a locally owned business or cooperative.
“50 new jobs,” it doesn’t say where these jobs will be. “Major investment” represents a one off to turn the sight into a showroom, which represents extreme limited use in the future. “Economic activity” as I have said will be extractive in the extreme. Any business seeking to use the site will have to pay business rates so that’s a redundant point. Seriously, they’re going to have to pull out a lot more than this leaflet to make a convincing argument…
If we are serious about increasing economic development in our area we have to get serious about supporting locally owned businesses to grow within the locality. Community Wealth Building is the only way forward.
It does seem to be loose on precise details, as Josh says, 50 new jobs - but will they for local people? Will they be for trainees or exisiting skilled staff? Either way there will be 50 more cars driven into Eastleigh on a daily basis, not to mention the car transporters. As they already have two car franchise buildings on Leigh Road I feel this is overkill.
The land could be used for a new skate park/BMX track with perhaps a wall for local artists to use.
Lib Dem ‘Eastleigh Focus’ newsletter touts the Hendy showroom as “…another jobs boost for our town!” - conveniently forgetting to do any research as to what the jobs will actually be, will they actually be FOR local people and will they be permanent - as opposed to the short-term construction contracts?
Speculating I’d say that leaflet was rushed due to the by-election and the Lib Dems not having a candidate in place. Either that or they’re giving another blank cheque for a business to expand despite small to none impact on the borough’s local economy.
No surprise that I started a photo album and have been photographing the site when ‘progress’ looks to have happened or imminent. I will add further photos once Hendy start work on this site.
The new Hendy car showroom will provide additional jobs and opportunities for local people. It also brings a vacant brownfield site into viable use, provides economic benefits to the local area and supports an existing business.”
provide additional jobs and opportunities for local people - which jobs, permanent or just temporary construction workers?
brings a vacant brownfield site into viable use, provides economic benefits to the local area and supports an existing business. - what economic benefit does this yield for the local area?
No surprise that the Council like this as “The Council retains ownership of the site and the business premises will add to the Council’s property portfolio that provides a significant rental income to the Council.” Will this income be turned to the community?
If Net Zero and all this hand wringing over the future of the planet was real, we should not be entertaining selling more cars or pumping more CO2 into the air through concrete production. We should be radically reducing our dependance on the car for short trips, decreasing speed limits, increasing cycle lanes and bus availability, etc. But of course radical (or basic) action is not something that any Council or Authority can think about as it upsets the valued voters - aka the motorist. As long as people are welded to their imagined entitlement to drive 2 tonnes of SUV metal to the local shops for a newspaper, then the world, I’m afraid, is F…D. And who aided this gradual destruction? The car showrooms and manufacturers and those that allow them to exist.
