{"id":47404,"date":"2025-04-24T19:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T19:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/47404\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T19:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T19:34:11","slug":"englands-smallest-town-at-war-with-dominos-pizza-over-ridiculous-plan-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/47404\/","title":{"rendered":"England’s smallest town at war with Domino’s pizza over ‘ridiculous’ plan | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plans to open a Domino’s<\/a> takeaway in England’s smallest town<\/a> haven’t gone down well with locals, who say it would be a “shameful” intrusion on a high street packed with independent businesses. Over 100 residents in Manningtree, which spans just 47 acres in north-east Essex<\/a>, wrote to their council opposing the proposal, which they said would “erode” the charm of the area and steal business from family-owned and local enterprises. The pizza chain wants to set up shop in the town’s old Barclays branch, and would only be the second big-name brand on its high street, alongside a Tesco Express.<\/p>\n

Manningtree also already has a number of independent Italian restaurants and takeaways, including Lucca, The Pizza Place and Manningtree Grill and Pizza, the BBC reports<\/a>. “Having an American fast food takeaway chain will be detrimental to the charming English character of the high street,” Emma Charles said. “It isn’t in keeping with the current aesthetic and ethos and will be an eyesore in the town.”<\/p>\n

Alexander Wrathall said the arrival of a pizza chain would “price out” and “threaten the livelihoods” of its smaller-scale competitors, while “not contributing to any sense of community spirit”.<\/p>\n

Sally Johns added that the proposal “almost feels like an April Fools gag”, describing it as “so ridiculous”. Other derisive comments levelled at the planned branch included that it would be an “absurd” addition to the high street, “destructive” and “ugly”.<\/p>\n

However, Stephen Ivell was among the minority warning against a knee-jerk reaction to the news and suggested that his neighbours were struggling to “cope with change”.<\/p>\n

“The demographics of the area have changed, with a lot of young families moving in who would welcome additional choices,” he said.<\/p>\n

“People will only buy Domino’s if they like Domino’s. No one will be forced to.”<\/p>\n

The multinational pizza company, which is the biggest of its kind in the US, said it was committed to “making a positive impact” in the community.<\/p>\n

Planning documents show that the new branch would create 25 new jobs and be open between 11am and 11pm daily.<\/p>\n

“We bring the joy of the occasional takeaway to customers across the country and use data and local market knowledge to identify where there is demand for our store,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“We also provide employment and development opportunities for local people.”<\/p>\n

Tendring District Council has launched a consultation on the proposal which will run until May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans to open a Domino’s takeaway in England’s smallest town haven’t gone down well with locals, who say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,25913,393,2653,4884,10463,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-47404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dominos","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-essex","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-neighbour-rows","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114394619170281159","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}