'Irony' of superstore's Oswestry town centre concern

Morrisons, which has planning permission to build a store off the Shrewsbury Road, Oswestry, has written to Shropshire Council objecting to a scheme for a Lidl store about 500 yards along the road.

Aldi was recently granted planning permission for a discount supermarket between the two sites.

In its letter, development consultant Peacock and Smith, for Morrisons, said: "The cumulative impact of the approved new Morrisons, the approved new Aldi and the proposed Lidl would be significantly adverse, reducing the town centre's convenience goods turnover by an estimated 48.2 per cent.

"This would leave the town centre's convenience retailers collectively trading at around only 65 per cent of their expected turnover. This is a worryingly high level of impact which would have a serious knock-on effect for the vitality and viability of the town centre."

But local businesses have described the comments as "ironic" and warned that they face a fight to secure the future of the town centre.

Oswestry Chamber of Commerce chair, Jools Payne, said: "It would be inappropriate for the Chamber of Commerce to become embroiled in a game of numbers ping pong between competing retailers without properly scrutinising the veracity of Morrison's trading projections.

"That said, an expanding retail ribbon on the edge of town will inevitably impact on the share of available consumer spend and that is of major concern to the independent retailers in the town centre. How ironic that Morrison's have suddenly awoken to this simple truth.

"It's increasingly obvious that any business operating in Oswestry town centre, independent or otherwise, which is reliant on footfall needs to join the Oswestry Chamber of Commerce to strengthen their share of voice as this coalescence continues apace."

Gemma Syrett-Judd, from Honeysuckle Wholefoods, in Church Street, added: "As Morrison's figures appear to illustrate, the future is not looking bright for the town centre.

"Whatever the figures being bandied about, the plain fact is it will affect the town centre dramatically.

"The bigger and stronger the Chamber the more formidable its collective voice becomes."