Cardigan's Tesco Extension Approved - But at what cost?

After all of the arguing and claim and counter-claim, this current round in Cardigan's Supermarket Wars came to an end yesterday in Ceredigion County Council's monthly Planning Committee meeting.

I've already gone into some depth about the background between the feud between Tesco and the new Sainsbury's store here and here. Sainsbury's finally got their permission last month after years of paralysis on the controversial Bath House site.

Well yesterday, having withdrawn their original plan for a huge extension to their current store alongside the by-pass to the north of the town, Cardigan's Tesco narrowly won approval on a smaller plan to extend their current store despite objections from the Town Council and concerns from local traders on Cardigan'a High St.

I spoke up against the extension in-line with the comments of the Town Council. Having agreed to the new build for Sainsbury's, I didn't feel that there was any need to give an extension to Tesco. There will now be, as well as Aldi and the Co-op in town, plenty of competition. Adding to the amount of non-food conveniance goods that Tescos can sell would I feel, only be to the detriment of the town centre.

The feeling I garnered as the debate unfolded in the Council Chamber yesterday morning was that Tesco for once would end up losing this battle. There were committee members (I, not being a member of the planning committee didn't have a vote but was allowed to speak) from both sides of the chamber speaking against the need to expand so I felt it would fall comfortably. I was therefore rather stunned I must admit when the vote ended with 11 in favour, 9 against and with 2 abstentions.

So Tesco, against the odds I would say, have got their extension. It's akin to going 2 goals down in their fight against Sainsbury's but somehow managing to conjur up an injury-time equaliser.

In the meantime, whilst they fight it out between themselves, I worry for the town centre traders and the impact that this larger out-of-town Tescos will have on them.

A 'Green Light to Go' for Cardigan's Bath-House Sainsbury's Development

The on-going saga surrounding the controversial commercial development in the Bath-House area of Cardigan is coming to a conclusion.

As I mentioned in my blog here back in February, the tit-for-tat supermarket war between Sainsbury’s, who are seeking to move into the Bath-House development, and the current Tesco’s store at the top of town has prolonged the issue. Indeed, a late letter sent in by Tesco tried to thwart today's discussion once more as they requested a further deferral so that this Sainsbury's application could be dealt with in tandem with one of their own.

Thankfully, the committee saw sense today to wave away that plea and made a decision on the application in front of it this morning on its own merit.

As I mentioned in that blog post in February, I raised two specific concerns and I raised them again this morning:

"I raised my concerns regarding the proposed petrol station and the Environment Agency's concern about how its sub-surface tanks may have an adverse impact on the water course in the River Mwldan. I also raised my concern of the proposed 65% food retail / 35% non-food retail split in the store when the Town Council called for a 80% / 20% split to limit the effect felt by the High St non-food retailers"

Concerns Placated, Concerns Remain
Today, Ceredigion County Council’s Planning Committee dealt with the application once more and I was pleased to see that the Environment Agency Wales objections have now been removed. This is because Sainsbury's have for the time being, removed the petrol pump station from the application. They had an opportunity to move it to another part of the development so as to placate the Environment Agency's concerns but instead decided to remove it completely at this stage. This doesn't preclude them from putting a new application in, in the future for a petrol pump station so this may well only be a delay on their part with this.

But what it meant is that the Environment Agency have, with conditions, given their approval and this is to be welcomed.

My second point that I raised in February's meeting however has not been allayed. The proposed food and non-food split for the new supermarket remains at 65% and 35% and not the more reasonable split proposed by the Town Council of 80%-20%. I raised the concern of the Town Council and of local High St traders to this in this morning's meeting as a larger percentage of non-food retail in the new Sainsbury's could have a more detrimental impact on the town centre. Unfortunately however, whilst these concerns were noted, the 65%-35% split remains.

Green Light to Go for Bath-House and Sainsbury's

So, when it came to the vote, after years of debate and discussions and disagreement and after meetings after meetings after meetings, it was agreed by those voting members of the committee (as I'm not a member of the Planning Committee, I didn't have a vote) this morning, to support the recommendation of giving the planning officers the powers to approve the application once final conditions have been confirmed.

Indeed, the recommendation was supported unanimously.

So after years of debate and disagreement in town about this controversial plan, today, May 11th 2011 would seem to me to be the day when Bath-House was given the 'green light to go'. I still have concerns regarding the development as mentioned above so I will be keeping a keen eye on developments over the weeks and months ahead.

Tesco Vs Sainsbury – Cardigan’s Cuban Missile Crisis

I’ve not long returned from a Ceredigion County Council planning meeting. In it, the application for a new Sainsbury’s supermarket in Cardigan was discussed in some length.

I’m not a member of the Planning Committee so I have no vote on such matters but as a local member, I was allowed to attend and give my thoughts on the applications.

The Bath-House Saga
This application goes back some time in history as it is based on the controversial Bath-House site of town which has been earmarked for a mixed-use development of retail, healthcare and housing.

It has been a contentious and controversial potential area of development since before I was elected onto the County Council back in 2004 and ever since.

In 2007, despite my plea that more time be given to iron out a number of technicalities, approval was given for development on the land including our desperately needed new hospital and a new supermarket which would sit alongside – with two main entrance points to the development. However, at the time, a strip of land owned by a private local individual on the Gwbert Road side of the development was required to be sold to the developers for it to go through as agreed. It soon became apparent that an impasse had been reached with said private individual and the application as agreed couldn’t go through. A second application therefore came in front of the planning committee in 2008 but this time with only one entrance to the site – from Cardigan High St. This was widely unpopular due to the traffic congestion that it would accrue in the town centre. I spoke out against it and it was defeated.

It seemed then that short of a CPO, the Bath-House development was dead in the water. But then suddenly, the previously stated private land owner offered after all to sell his strip of land to the developers which meant the original 2007 outline application could proceed as then agreed.

Sainsbury Vs Tesco
There was much talk in the meantime about which supermarket would buy into the scheme. It was widely expected that Tesco would get their chequebook out to ensure that no rival would move onto their territory after they themselves moved to the top of town location where they currently reside back some 20 years ago.

However, as it turned out, Sainsbury's were the chosen company and they submitted their plans for a supermarket in the Bath-House. Tesco retaliated by putting in their own application to significantly increase their supermarket which would've meant the loss of the present petrol station.

Concern grew about the lack of a petrol station in Cardigan town apart from T.M.Daniel on Priory St, so Sainsbury's put in a revised planning application that included a petrol station with their supermarket. Tesco responded by putting in its own additional planning application for a new petrol station on the New Mill Road opposite its store. This in recent weeks has sparked understandable concern from local residents from Heol Y Wern who are worried about how this petrol station would impact on their private space.

Today's Planning Committee
So we approached today's meeting with a sense that it was going to be a straight fight between the Sainsbury and Tesco applications. This was further re-empasised when the agenda came out last week and the officers recommendations were to defer the Sainsbury's application but giving the officers powers to approve whilst refusing the Tesco application because the former is an edge of town centre development whilst the latter is an out of town equivalent. The thinking being that the Tesco development will significantly undermine High St trading. The Town Council also opposed the Tesco extension whilst giving caveats to its support for a new Sainsbury's store.

So with all of this mounting pressure against them, we were informed at 4.30pm last night, barely 18 hours before the planning meeting, that Tesco were withdrawing their application and are to submit a substantially reduced alternative in due course.

Or as Dean Rusk the US Secretary of State said of the Soviet Union in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which I quoted in today's Planning Meeting:

"We've been eye-ball to eye-ball and the other fellow blinked".

It almost feels like a reasonable comparison because the build-up to today's meeting felt like a confrontation between these two retail giants. In the end, with everything against them, having responded to every move made by Sainsbury's, Tesco stepped back from the brink to re-calculate its position.
 
Round 1 to Sainsbury's
In the meeting itself, I raised my concerns regarding the proposed petrol station and the Environment Agency's concern about how its sub-surface tanks may have an adverse impact on the water course in the River Mwldan. I also raised my concern of the proposed 65% food retail / 35% non-food retail split in the store when the Town Council called for a 80% / 20% split to limit the effect felt by the High St non-food retailers.
 

As a result of these and other technicalities, I supported a call to defer the application and to bring it back to a full meeting of the committee. At least then, the final decision on the application will be made by elected Councillors and not planning officers.

 

We shall see what comes of that in due course but in the meantime, today saw a set-back for Tesco and we here in Cardigan will await their new application with interest.