For once it is not the recession that is threaten curb ambitious retail plans but local opposition.
EG reported (15th August) that frustrations were brewing amongst locals in Hereford over a 382,000 sq ft retail quarter (pictured) to be developed by Stanhope in the city centre.
Since then, local Hereford councillor Mark Hubbard has set up a campaign group called It's Our City, calling for the original plans to be torn up and redesigned as a smaller scheme.
The campaigners believe current proposals will be detrimental to the existing city centre shopping which is struggling with vacant units.
The group, which formed nine weeks ago, have collected nearly 9,000 signatures - nearly a fifth of city's population - so it has clearly ruffled feathers.
The petition will be presented to the council and ESG Herefordshire, the regeneration body steering the project, at its quarterly meeting on Friday 13th November.
Hubbard says he hopes that this will be enough to reopen negotiations about Stanhope's proposed scheme. The developer, on the other hand, is adamant that the development will go ahead as planned.
Alistair Shaw at Pendower Developments, which is managing the project for Stanhope, says that the scheme will not be scaled back and that a development agreement will be signed imminently.
It sounds like the council is in for a tough time at its meeting next week but not as tough as steering the scheme through planning could be if applications are submitted on schedule next year.
I find it extremely hard to believe, that Hereford idiots erm I mean planners, are even contemplating buildind a shopping centre on the old market site.
What will happen to the few remaining retailers in town ? My daughter started a tiny outlet 2 yrs ago in the indoor market, you may recall 1st stall on the left called Laura Jaynes, small retail outlet, she ran the stall making no wages for over a year when due to floods, plus dead things in the roof causing "maggots" to fall on her stock making it unsellable. leaving her with not enough stock to keep open. she was still charged full rent for I don't know how long ! but she and her hubby are still in debt to the point of £10,000. To my mind this council needs to get its head into the present, not look to a future which will also kill off the remains of our once lovely city !