We object!

I went to Booker this morning and I'm glad I did because I met a lady who runs an Indoor Activity similar to ours who was shopping there as well. We have had a good relationship with her and her husband over the ten years she's been running her business and the first thing she said to me was that she was worried about the new play centre opening as she'd had a good look at the planning application. Up until today I wasn't too worried, but when I too had a look at the plans as soon as I got back to work, the alarm bells started ringing very loudly indeed.

One line they had written really worried me - the fact that making a profit doesn't seem to matter to them, or even recouping the investment they will be making in the business. The woman who is planning to open it seems to want to act as a wonderful benefactor to the children of Northamptonshire and beyond!

We felt we had no choice to object to the planning application, as the other indoor play centre had done, on two grounds: lack of parking - for a business twice the size of ours they have just 60 spaces (we have 100) and for the fact we feel they will not encourage healthy competition as they do not seem worried about charging prices that reflect the level of investment. There is no way we would be able to compete as we need to charge a certain amount to cover all our overheads.

To a background of extremely noisy children I somehow managed to come up with our objections and emailed it to the Borough Council. We can only wait and hope now!