Here’s a quick illustration of the 3 contingency layouts, not the final proposed one, I suggest looking at the online application available HERE;

I quite like the idea of a Waitrose, it’ll keep Sainsbury’s on their toes, but I don’t know how it’ll affect other food retailers in town. I guess with 600 new homes on the Farndon Road estate being built and 1,000 proposed on the ‘Airfield’ site, the town could possibly cope with one more supermarket.

The full application can be seen HERE.

Firstly The White Lion pub has a planning application in to make a front entrance off the High Street, rather than side entrance it has now. This could mean a new pub will be there soon or maybe a retail outlet, although there’s no sign of a change of use application so it’s likely a pub or restaurant.

Talking of pubs and change of use, The Union Inn on Leicester Road has an application in to change it from pub to supervised boarding accommodation. This application has been made by Brooke College. It appears they’re wanting more rooms for their students.

An interesting application has been submitted by Outer Space, the fantastic garden store on St Mary’s Road, for a bridge over the River Welland to the decked rear of their store. They seem to wanting to capitalise on the footfall passing Sainsburys. I hope it gets planning, although I wonder what shenanigans will happen at night on or around it.

It appears, from an application, that Vanilla Recruitment are expanding and taking over the upper floor of their building on St Mary’s Road.

Well that wraps up what may be happening in and around Harborough. It’s good to see the town developing, long may it prosper.

Work has begun on refitting the old Arkel Computing shop, it looks quite big inside. Hopefully this Deli will be more successful than ‘Loaf’ which was round the corner.

Update (08/06/11):

A new sign has gone up outside the building, it says “Simply Simon’s Delicatessen and Bistro cafe”.

I guess we’ll have somewhere else nice to eat in Harborough now. As I said, it looked a big space inside, if not a little dark, though with some decent lighting I guess the space will be comfortable. I’m also guessing there’ll be take away food available which is always good, there’s some good food takeaways in Harborough, but some competition should make them better.

The resounding question is what does this mean for Russel Francis or for The Furniture Barn?

Meerkat mania is well under way in Harborough after an ingenious marketing campaign for comparethemarket.com goes from strength to strength. It’s been proposed to turn Market Harborough into Meerkat Harborough for a day after our town is twinned with Meerkovo, home of the Meerkovians.

I think this is beyond genius and deserves the mania that is sweeping the town. It would put Harborough squarely on the map and profile our wonderful town to the whole country which is fantastic news. I hope we win the poll set up on Facebook by the ad agency, ahum, sorry by the Meerkovians. Here’s the link to vote if you haven’t already… VOTE HERE

The campaign has made it onto local radio at HFM and into the local paper The Harborough Mail

Update 1 :

A local company has created a well produced, spoof video…

Update 2 :

My wife saw a man measuring the Market Harborough sign out towards St Luke’s hospital last night. Does this mean something is afoot?

The store always seems quite busy when I go in there, although I did mention the other day that I’d not been in for over a year, so that may be a reflection on the state of the group. When Amazon sell a book for £4.49 and Waterstones sell the exact same book for £5.19, that must say a lot. With the increase of internet sales this must have been a major reason for the downturn.

Do you have any thoughts on this?

Do you browse bookstores or shop online?

Update :

Well not really an update, more of an observation-come-thought-provoking-question. As HMV have said they’re closing 20 Waterstones, Waitrose have announced, because they’re doing so well, they’re opening 39 stores. Now, it’s no secret that they’re desperate to open a store in Market Harborough, so rumours are abound of them targeting sites in the town. One ‘out there’ rumour is that they’re looking at the council offices when they’re moved to the out of town ‘Airfield business park area’. This should be taken with a pinch of salt though!! So where are likely sites? The old Sanderson Ford showroom was quickly quashed.

The great (and some would think annoying) thing about the app is that you can buy add ons, more lenses, film and flashes that when combined give a huge amount of different effects. These are priced at 59p each, so don’t break the bank, though once one is purchased the rest simply have to follow.

Another well thought out part of the app is the shake for random effect, this will choose a film, lens and flash from all of the options purchased which is good for quick, random choices. When you hit on a particular image you like, you can gather the info of the ‘camera’ that took it and use them again, right from the press of a button. The randomness of the shake affect and the unknown outcome is what makes this app good.

I’ve already taken over 200 photos and I’ve not had this app a week yet, it’s that compulsive. So needless to say I love this app and am looking forward to new ‘add-on packs’. Which leads me onto the other fantastic part of the app, in app purchasing. You can buy the add-ons anytime, right from within the application. As I said, both addictive and compulsive.