A couple of licensing application notifications have popped up in the centre of Forest Hill. It looks like M&Co (10-12 London Road) is to become a Morrisons 'M' Local.

The application itself is for the sale of alcohol off the premises, Monday - Sunday 6am-12am, last date for representations 7th August 2014.

I'd be interested to know how they plan to deal with loading, waste etc - I suspect the top of Havelock Walk might get even busier than it is now.

Interesting for the Sainsbury's to have some competition, albeit on a smaller scale. Thoughts?

This post was last modified: 12-07-2014 02:47 PM by edpaff.

That would be a shame. M&Co was always a good place for children and women's clothing and provides a bit of (much needed) variety on our high street.

Agree, too many grocers already.

Bit Pointless if You ask me...We have Tesco at the petrol station,
Sainsburys of course and the 24hr grocer by Canvas and cream.
Now a Waitrose local....that'd be LUSH.
On a serious note I never shop at M&Co however I think it gives us a nice variety of shops on our high st, and as previously mentioned they seem to do really nice reasonably priced kids clothes.

Waitrose, M&S, and Pizza Express must be kicking themselves! Bit of a waste of a great site. But at least it remains retail and it shows that national chains would like to open in Forest Hill, where they can see a good opportunity.

Amazing that Ghinns/Makays/M&Co has lasted so long. I guess Next opening in Bell Green was the last nail in the coffin. Nice enough shop, but this branch of M&Co was their only one in Inner London.

I find the last two comments a bit perplexing.

Why is a Morrisons a waste of the site but somehow a Waitrose is a great idea?

Because a lot of people see Waitrose as a "top" supermarket.

Remember back a few years when we all moaned about FH being full of nail bars, chicken shops and estate agents. It appears supermarket chains are the new nail bars.

I'm looking forward to having somewhere else to go, other than Sainsburys. Having mobility problems, the Tesco/petrol station is useless to me. My main reason for being pleased, is that I am sick to the back teeth with Sainsburys having a stranglehold in SE23. Also, there'll (hopefully) be some job opportunities for locals.

I used to shop in Mackays when my children were very small, but haven't been tempted in recently. However, that may be why we are seemingly losing the only chain clothing store from
FH. I doubt, however, if they cater to the same demographic as Next, so I don't think they are to blame.

However, if choosing a chain food store to take the unit, I'd like to see an Aldi.

Bringoutthecranston,
You make a very fair point. What I would suggest is that Morrisons is unlikely to bring anything significantly different to Forest Hill compared to Sainsbury, Tesco, & Coop. I think that waitrose or pizza express would bring something slightly different to Forest Hill at least in terms of perceptions. But I have never visited a Morrisons Local, so admit my ignorance of their offering.
I certainly don't see this as a disaster for the area, but I do think other chains have missed a trick not snapping up one of the largest sites on the high street.

I've visited the M Local in New Oxford Street. While good for fruit and veg, the range is worse than your typical Morrisons.

If you've ever been to Morrisons in Peckham (or any other of their main supermarkets), replenishment of stock is a major issue for them.

Considering Sainsburys is so close, there isn't no need for them to come to FH, yet when was the last time any of us been to M&Co for clothes?

I bought a sweater there this winter, and some clothes for my kids.

Servicing really is a big issue for these local/metro supermarkets. I really don't see how this would work. TfL surely won't allow loading on London Road and Havelock Walk is totally unsuitable.

How do M&Co currently receive their stock? I've seen regular lorry deliveries to Havelock Walk.

I lived near an area where there was an incredible proliferation of 'local' supermarkets, but that was over a much longer street in a much more densely populated neightbourhood - Brixton Hill.

I don't get why Morrisons would want to open so close to a full service supermarket and a decent corner shop.

The I.S. Food and Wine shop is excellent. The guys there have put a lot of effort into refurbishing and changing the former newsagents and have plenty of footfall.

It's reminiscent to when Tesco Express opened on Kirkdale and affected Ram's Convenience Store.

This post was last modified: 13-07-2014 09:49 PM by rbmartin.

Morrisons are developing a model for their company based on expansion of convenience stores - this article is a little old but gives an insight into their plans and why they are doing what they are doing http://www.conveniencestore.co.uk/news/m...11.article

I might be wrong, but i think it's usual for big companies to apply for a licence pre-emptively before going for the full planning application on a site, so i suppose it might not be a 'done deal' yet...??

They obviously think that there is a share of the market that can be aggressively taken from the small independents and other convenience stores in FH...

Planning permission would not be required as both M&co and Morrisons are A1 retailers.

However, Forest Hill town centre is a conservation area, so any major change to the frontage would require planning permission (as happened when Barclays moved a cash machine, or WH Smith installed a lift and post office signage).

Interestingly, I don't think M&Co receive stock via their access on Havelock Walk, although their rubbish does come out of there. It could be that their delivery trucks stop at the top of Havelock and load via London Road, but as there are so many trucks/vans stopping there every day I wouldn't know for sure.

I guess this is fairly similar to the Sainsbury's in HOP, where the change of use couldn't really be contested in planning terms, but the related applications to change the configuration gave the opportunity to influence access/loading/parking arrangements etc.

We have an opportunity to oppose the premises licence application. It's not foolproof of course but my guess is that selling alcohol would be a core element of their business plan, so it's worth a shot to see if we can prevent this from happening. A group of us got chatting on Twitter today and decided to launch a petition.

You can add your signature here: https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/l...orest-hill

It was all done very quickly so any suggestions i.t.o how we can improve the pitch are most welcome!