Supermarket Decision Time

On 3^rd March the Councillors who make up the Babergh District Council Planning sub-Committee will be expected to make an important decision on the supermarket proposals that we seem to have been living with for so long.  Earlier this month the Suffolk County Council  Development Control Sub-Committee briefly appeared on this stage to consider both Tesco and Buyright proposals.  Their officers had advised in favour of the Tesco riverside proposal and the official briefing was very brief but thanks to the vigilance of John Bloomfield and Jan Byrne, and in partnership with the Suffolk Preservation Society, the councillors received a much fuller statement of the case.  They recommended that only one, not both should be approved.

It is easy to lose sight of the whole set of issues as each new point occurs so at this critical stage we think it worth reiterating the Hadleigh Society’s case.

The riverside site was completely rejected by the Inspector at the Local Enquiry in 1995, and therefore was not included in the Local Plan.  The Hadleigh Society has identified 27 points on which the Tesco proposal is in conflict with the Babergh Local Plan.

The site stretches down to the River Brett with cars parked only feet from it. The opposite riverbank is a much loved nature walk through a wooded area. Any development on the scale proposed would completely destroy the tranquillity of this area.

In order to gain access to the site the developers, in their own words, want to “punch a hole” in the High Street by demolishing a building in the conservation area that is adjacent to and partly overlaps an important Grade 2* listed building.

The Tesco application predicts an increase of some 4,000 vehicle movements per day at the entrance to the site with traffic lights and road narrowing slowing the flow of High Street traffic.  The resultant levels of noise, fumes and vibration in the middle of a largely residential conservation area would create a major nuisance.

The Buyright store already has A1 retail consent, which means that the owners could turn the whole store into a food supermarket at any time. Last year they obtained planning consent for an additional entrance that allows them to divide the present building into two stores, one of which would become a supermarket of some 25,000 sq. ft.  They have made it clear that if their present application is unsuccessful then they will go ahead anyway with this division. Thus, whatever the outcome of their present application the town will have a supermarket on the Buyright site that, we understand, will be operated by one of the major supermarket companies.

On the other hand, Buyright have said that if granted consent for a new supermarket adjacent to the existing building, they will give up their right to sell food from their present store.

Although the Buyright site is, by government guidelines, an “out of centre” site, it is within easy walking distance of the older parts of the town. With outline planning consent now given to Persimmon Homes for a large number of new houses to be built on the old MoD site, it will be accessible on foot to a much larger number than would the riverside site. The footpath from Maiden Way provides access to the High Street. 

As the site has a direct link to the Hadleigh bypass, delivery lorries will be able to avoid the Town Centre, as will those travelling by car from the area north of the town, from which Tesco predicted that half the new traffic would come.  Unlike the riverside application, no special measures will be needed to cope with increased traffic along the High Street and the necessary road improvements are already part of Persimmon’s plans.  

We can already see the pattern of bulk food shopping being changed by the Internet.  Proximity to the town centre becomes irrelevant in this new world and a Tesco Warehouse despoiling the riverside site would be even more clearly seen as an act of corporate vandalism.