Why plans to demolish a roundabout are wrong- Tristram Hunt

For me, it marks the transition from city to country, from the urban world of the Six Towns and encircling villages to the wilder-ness and moorlands of the Peaks.

It is not the most significant or beautiful space in the world.

This is no Trafalgar Square, but with its distinctive planting, old-fashioned signage and street lamps it is an identifiable and much-loved part of Leek.

Above all, it provides the backdrop to the Nicholson War Memorial, one of the tallest in the country and the scene for many acts of remembrance and respect.

So it is all the more astonishing to learn that Staffordshire County Council appears intent on ruining this very special part of the Moorlands, all to accommodate a new Sainsbury's supermarket.

The philistines in the traffic management division want to replace the roundabout with a series of traffic lights, infuriating both residents and the Royal British Legion.

An opposition petition has garnered some 3,000 signatures and it is clearly time the county council thought again. For what is lost can so rarely ever be restored.

Of course, the 350 new jobs at the store and warehouses promised by the Sainsbury development are to be welcomed – although one always needs to count those against the prospect of job losses in other retail outlets.

The proposed £40 million development will see the construction of 79 new homes and apartments, of which 50 per cent will be 'affordable'.

There will be a recycling centre, conservation and public park area, as well as improvements to the adjacent Brindley's Corn Mill and Conservative Workingmen's Club. There will be bus services and upgrading of local roads. All to the good.

But alongside that comes the elimination of Leek roundabout for a gaudy forest of traffic lights, likened by campaigners to the Blackpool illuminations. Eight-year-old Alexandra Eeley, a Westwood First School pupil, had the right idea when she wrote to the Prime Minister complaining that, "it would not look better with lights and it would look all boring." It certainly would. Something distinctive and unique will becoming something bland and dull.

The concerns of the Royal British Legion (RBL) are equally compelling.

"Members are all of the opinion that the traffic island must stay," said Fred Duffield, pictured below left, secretary of the Leek branch of the RBL. "It would be disrespectful to the servicemen who this memorial is dedicated to." It is also disrespectful to the residents of Leek.

I'm not sure J Sainsbury plc has covered itself in glory when it comes to urban architecture in North Staffordshire.

While the staff and managers of the Stoke store, for instance, make it a great environment for shopping, the shed which sits in London Road is no great work of civic design. And they have a bit of a cheek calling it 'Minton House'.

There is also a worrying tendency among some developers to think they can get away with second best in North Staffordshire. The supermarket designs we get are not the ones proposed in Derby, Cheltenham or parts of Manchester and Birmingham.

There is an assumption local authorities will always say 'yes'.

I, for one, still remain horrified by plans to rebrand the East-West Shopping Precinct in Hanley as 'City Sentral.' It is patronising, wrong-headed and embarrassing. It shows a lack of respect for local opinion and pride – and is the same mind set which allows J Sainsbury's to ruin Leek roundabout. It is not as if supermarkets stay around forever. In Stoke-on-Trent we see supermarkets opening and closing with furious speed.

In Newcastle, one Sainsbury's has closed for another to open. But no-one remembers another supermarket or traffic light.

What they do remember is something different and unexpected, like the green acreage of Leek's roundabout.
It is somewhere to look forward to, not simply pass through.

In theory, the consultation on the road layout remains open until November. In reality, the county council isn't going to budge.

On the very site of a war memorial, the local authority has surrendered to Sainsbury's wishes. And in the future, my drive to the Peaks will have lost just a little of its magic.