From the archive: Superstore plan outrages residents

First published in The Toyland Express March 11th, 2004.

RESIDENTS OF TOYTOWN ARE CAMPAIGNING against a proposed department store development which promises to 'rejuvenate' an untidy and underpopulated area of the village.

Local start-up businessman Finbar 'Barry' Bramble, 35, has applied for permission from King Cheeky to erect a massive four-storey department store, containing a cafe, toyshop, clothes shop and hair salon. He claims it will bring much needed investment in the corner of Toyland, currently occupied by the plastic Dressing Table, whose batteries for its lights have been flat for some years now.

While local residents have continually maligned the Dressing Table as a 'blight', 'ruin', and 'ghost of a version of Emily passed', opposition to the proposed development has been heated and, at times, vitriolic.

Citizens of Toytown currently confine themselves to a row of Lego and Sylvanian shops and houses opposite the dolls house, which adjoins the controversial Dressing Table area. Lately, rubbish has begun to be dumped around the Dressing Table chair - crumpled up colouring-in pages and felt tips that have long run out provide eyesores that make Toytown a source of embarassment for Toyland on the international stage.

However, while the toys clearly want something to restore the area, it is clear from the discussions of huddled-together local pressure groups gathered at the foot of the bed at Sunshine Avenue/Toytown Way that the Bramble 'behemoth' (as one resident branded it) is not what they had in mind.

'The development is simply too big. It will destroy the character of the village and run local businesses into ruin. We are not opposed to Bramble's development in principle, just in scale,' said Graham Greybear, holding an impressive placard.

King Cheeky will announce whether the four-storey proposal will go ahead next week.