Ludlow supermarket bid is up for decision
A decision is set to be made on a bitterly-opposed out-of-town supermarket plan, two years after it was first mooted.
Plans for a large-scale store and petrol station at Rocks Green, on the A49 as it bypasses Ludlow, is expected to go before Shropshire Council's south planning committee on October 11 for a final decision, though it is not known if council officers will recommend it is approved or not as yet.
The proposal, for which no supermarket chain has been named, has seen strong objections from the town's chamber of trade, civic society, town centre residents association and even MP Philip Dunne, who usually remains neutral on planning matters, and hasover concerns the store could hit town centre trade hard. The plans have seen a series of delays since they were first submitted in December 2014, as details of the scheme were ironed out.
They are going before councillors on the county's south planning committee because there have been objections from both Ludlow Town Council and Ludford Parish Council, a Shropshire Council note on "applications requested for committee determination" says.
It says: "This is a complex and major application which has generated a high level of public interest."
It says a site visit is needed and council highways officers have been requested to be present to answer questions about traffic.
Councillor Glenn Ginger, chair of Ludlow Town Council's representational committee, will be speaking at the meeting.
He said: "Ludlow Town Council opposes the proposed out of town development, and has expressed its concerns regarding the detrimental effect on Ludlow town centre.
"The case made by the town council is supported Ludford Parish Council, who are the statutory consultee for this application."
However, a recent independent report by Johnathan Wadcock of Peter Brett Associates, commissioned by Shropshire Council, concluded the proposed store would not lead to a "significant impact" from loss of town centre business, even if the effect of the town's current Tesco store was taken into account.
Developer Blackfriars also maintains that store's impact on town centre trade would be minimal, as the town's "unique and specialist" town centre retailers served a "different need" to supermarket shopping, which would continue regardless of whether food shopping is done at Tesco or the proposed new store.
