Firstly, a big THANK YOU to the residents of Enfield on the overwhelming engagement with this brief, and quickly put together survey.
It dropped at 12:15 on Sunday 4th June and 409 had responded to the survey by midnight.
This demonstrates the level of interest of Enfield residents in another supermarket being built here.
Reason and methology
The reason for the hasty poll was due to an appeal being made to overturn the planning approval for the Lidl supermarket off the Kilcock roundabout. (Ref our post from April this year, https://www.enfieldedg.ie/post/a-lidl-bit-of-love-for-enfield )
Although it is a building site right now, the future of that area will have the new secondary school, entrances to the new housing estates, and possibly the sheltered housing/nursing home which is currently going through planning. So, it will be it's own local hub to a certain extent anyway.
We noticed on 3rd June that there was an objection made to An Bord Pleanala (ABP) - which is the overall planning authority in Ireland. They have the power to hear appeals to approved planning permissions, and to overturn them if they feel it is warranted.
The appeal to ABP was made by (what we know based on public information), a Navan resident, and someone with no obvious ties to Enfield. There were numerous reasons given in the objection, among which was the view that there were enough options in Enfield for residents to shop, and the effect on local retailers. Hence the main thrust of our survey, in order to directly get factual data to confirm/disprove this assertion. Our aim was to have it completed, compiled and to allow us submit a planning 'Observation' to ABP to let the planning authority know the views and mind of the people who actually live here on this topic. (Note: There were other more technical/engineering/planning zone reasons given in the objection, however Meath County Council already submitted their own counter to each of these in a separate document.)
Due to the limited time to place an observation from when we first became aware of it, we had to have it submitted to the planning authority by Tuesday 6th June, which we did. (Hence any responses to the survey received after Tuesday cannot be counted for this purpose, however the results showing below will show responses up to 8th June. This means the survey information given to ABP was based on 504 replies, and the data shown here is on 518. The additional 14 responses did not affect the results).
The form which was completed was available on:
https://forms.wix.com/r/7070781053119496641 which is hosted on this website.
Results
There were 518 respondents. Enfield has a population of around 3,900 people as of last census. 37% of the population are under the age of 17, which gives us roughly an adult population of around 2,500 over the age of 18. Based on total population, the 518 respondents would give the survey an accuracy margin of error of 5% each way. Taking only the adult population, - who are logically more likely to complete the survey – this margin of error drops to 3%.
Are you in favour of a new supermarket at the roundabout in Kilcock?
99% of respondents (513 replies) were in favour of the new supermarket in this location.
1% (5 replies) were not in favour of the new supermarket in this location.
(99.03% in Favour, 0.97% Not, for the analytical amongst us). :)
This shows an overwhelming support in the town for an additional supermarket.
But this doesn't answer specifically the question in the appeal that there is enough option in Enfield, and that a new supermarket would affect the existing retailers. Which is where the second question which was in the survey helps clarify.
Where do you do your 'Big Shop'?
8% of respondents (40 people) did their BIG shop in Enfield. Maynooth accounted for 40% of shopping, followed by Edenderry at a fair margin later. Kilcock came third.
These figures represent Specific Trips to do their larger shop, it does not count people who said they did their larger shop en-route from their commute.
Taking the top 3 (Maynooth, Edenderry and Kilcock), that represents 41,184 kilometres travelled by Enfield residents at least monthly to do their shopping.
Which is about 4,900 kilograms of carbon if you want to count the environmental impact each month.
Or, 234 litres of petrol used (based on 5.6ltr/100km which is the average family car) on journeys purely to do their shopping outside Enfield. However, the purpose of the question was to help ascertain the impact to local retailers of lost business. Of which this indicates it would be negligible. This is also supported by the responses to the question of what main benefits would people expect by having an additional supermarket.
If you are in favour of locating a new supermarket at the Kilcock Roundabout at Enfield - please state your reasons why.
Save time, petrol and stress travelling 429
Introduce competition in pricing within town 410
Expand the range of options available within town 373
Respondents were asked to select more than one reason if they wished. This reinforces the reasons of not required to travel outside Enfield as the main reason given.
Comments in Favour
There was a large section given to allow people submit comments in their own words. The majority of comments in favour were along the lines of not requiring to travel to other supermarkets where people felt there was a better price/range of options.
We selected some comments for the Observation to ABP, which we are detailing below. (Copy/pasted exactly as in feedback)
"Long overdue for the town, not just for ease but definitely for competition and choice and also a boost for employment in the area."
"We as a large family can not afford to do big shops in the local supermarkets here"
"With Enfield now becoming a much bigger town we have really only one shop in the whole town, We Need Another outlet to have a wider choice of services in Enfield 👏👏"
"This town is continuing to grow with more houses being built , we need to have better options for people to shop and to accommodate thos who maybe dont drive and have the option to walk and do a few days grocerys at competitive prices"
"Current retail options aren't enough,I either use tesco online delivery which comes from maynooth or I go to aldi/lidl in Trim."
"Given how quickly Enfield is growing we absolutely need a big supermarket! It’s crazy that we currently have to travel 20-30 mins to do our weekly grocery shopping!"
Comments not in Favour
As there were only a few responses not in favour, we included some of them in the Observation also. The 5 negative responses relate to people who already shop online and see no need, to personal convenience as well as respondent who has interest in land at other side of town.
"New shopping complex will compound already a busy commuter traffic route. I commute and it will add substantially to my Enfield to [Redacted] commute in the evenings."
"I shop for my big shop online and use local for topics. Shop on line was not on your form or considered as an option. It saves time, environmentally friendly and for working family’s is great."
"Providing another supermarket takes away from small businesses and does nothing to prevent and reduce food wastage"
Conclusion
As of time of posting, the appeal is still going ahead to ABP, as well as our observation and that of MCC to help counterbalance.
Whatever the outcome of the ABP appeal this time around. This survey does show the overwhelming support of the Enfield residents for an additional option.
Once again, THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to survey.
Comments