Uncertain future

In Newark, the down-grading of the hospital’s emergency unit is fuelling fears for other services there. There is talk of the police station being closed on Sundays and, more imminently, it appears the fate of Newark Magistrates’ Court has been all but decided, with Lord Justice Goldring favouring its closure.

On what some will see as a positive note, redevelopment work is under way at the Potterdyke site, with rubble mounting as the former carpark and Robin Hood make way for supermarket giant Asda.

Cash-strapped families, no doubt, will be looking forward to the bargain prices on food, clothes and everything in between, but will Newark’s town-centre market traders and independent retailers be quite as enthusiastic?

It’s hard to compete with the buying and selling power of the supermarkets, which dominate high streets up and down the country.

Will Asda fit well into and complement Newark’s shopping landscape or, together with the rumoured prospect of some Netto stores being sold to Tesco (among which Newark could be one) will the big names sound the death knell for the smaller Newark shops the tourists in particular love to visit?

Let’s hope Newark and Sherwood District Council has got its town-centre business plan correct.

To lose the magistrates’ court is a disgrace to local justice, to lose the market and retail heart of Newark to the supermarket giants will be a tourism death sentence.