Businesspeople in the Eure have been protesting against plans for a McArthurGlen designer clothing outlet.
About 200 protesters held up placards saying “No to a designer outlet village” outside the offices of the Communauté d’Agglomération des Portes des l’Eure, the local authority that wants to permit the scheme.
McArthurGlen, which specialises in selling designer clothes at bargain prices, says it would create about 1,000 jobs for the area.
However local opponents say the scheme, on wasteland along the A13 motorway, could destroy several thousand jobs in existing shops in nearby towns and villages.
The outlet is meant to open at Douains, near Vernon, in 2014, with 200 boutiques spread over 40,000 square metres.
McArthurGlen already has outlets in Troyes (Champagne-Ardenne) and Roubaix (Nord-Pas-de-Calais).
One opponent, Didier Bazin, told television station France 3: “It might not kill the town centres, but it will certainly weaken them. At Troyes, in the two years after McArthur Glen opened, 140 shops closed in the town centre and 300 closed in the department.”
However a spokesman for the firm said: “We’re not going to damage the town centre; we will develop a parallel shopping offer, the designer outlet village.
“We have 19 centres in Europe, and we see that, in Italy or Britain, we enrich the areas where we set up, both by providing jobs and attracting tourists.”
The department’s commercial affairs commission was set to give a final yes or no to the scheme as The Advertiser went to press.
SOURCE: Normandy Advertiser
About 200 protesters held up placards saying “No to a designer outlet village” outside the offices of the Communauté d’Agglomération des Portes des l’Eure, the local authority that wants to permit the scheme.
McArthurGlen, which specialises in selling designer clothes at bargain prices, says it would create about 1,000 jobs for the area.
However local opponents say the scheme, on wasteland along the A13 motorway, could destroy several thousand jobs in existing shops in nearby towns and villages.
The outlet is meant to open at Douains, near Vernon, in 2014, with 200 boutiques spread over 40,000 square metres.
McArthurGlen already has outlets in Troyes (Champagne-Ardenne) and Roubaix (Nord-Pas-de-Calais).
One opponent, Didier Bazin, told television station France 3: “It might not kill the town centres, but it will certainly weaken them. At Troyes, in the two years after McArthur Glen opened, 140 shops closed in the town centre and 300 closed in the department.”
However a spokesman for the firm said: “We’re not going to damage the town centre; we will develop a parallel shopping offer, the designer outlet village.
“We have 19 centres in Europe, and we see that, in Italy or Britain, we enrich the areas where we set up, both by providing jobs and attracting tourists.”
The department’s commercial affairs commission was set to give a final yes or no to the scheme as The Advertiser went to press.
SOURCE: Normandy Advertiser
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