If you go down to the woods today...

There’s no escape from the High Street. Not even in Center Parcs.
A stay at one of the villages owned by the Notts-based holiday business used to be a complete escape from the world outside (even if it was only a 20-minute drive down the A614). Even the shops and restaurants were Center Parcs’ own.
Not any more.
I spent an afternoon wandering round the Sherwood Forest village on Saturday, and noticed some significant changes.
There’s more retail space, the restaurant we used to call Chez Pierre is now a Café Rouge (like the one you can find on Bridlesmith Gate in the city), and there are a few more villas than there used to be.
Perhaps the most noticeable change comes when you wander down the path on the way in from the information centre.
There used to be something faintly reassuring about the inter-denominational (multi-faith in modern jargon) church hidden away in the trees.
I don’t know where you go to say a prayer now at CP, but there were plenty of people worshipping muffins and lattes outside the Starbucks that’s now sitting where the old church was.
Of course, nothing stays the same in business, and Center Parcs has been around in the UK for more than 20 years now.
It’s changed ownership a few times during that period, and is now answerable to Blackstone, an American private equity firm that owns quite a few leisure businesses.
Private equity buys things with borrowed money and uses the cash to build the business and then sell it at a higher price a few years later.
That’s why Center Parcs has been pumping millions into everything from new shops to new mattresses (on which it spent millions alone).
I don’t see anything wrong with High Street names appearing in the middle of the forest provided they set the right standard.
But Starbucks in place of a Church? Coffee may be the new religion for some, but it ain’t my cup of tea in this instance.