Plan approved for new supermarket at Telford retail park

The Forge Retail Park already contains Sainsbury's and B&M, and now Telford & Wrekin Council has approved a condition variation which will allow another supermarket on the retail park.

While a supermarket operator has not yet committed to the scheme they would be allowed an ‘extended food provision’ under new restrictions.

The supermarket would see Units 2 and 3 of the retail park combine and have a floor space of 2,275 square metres – less than half the size of Sainsburys (6,203 sq).

Aldi, Iceland and Asda already have supermarkets in Telford Town Centre, while a new Lidl store has been approved at the nearby Rock Road development.

“A store of the size proposed would not offer a ‘one-stop shop’, with shoppers still requiring to visit larger supermarkets in addition,” said the applicant, Corona Vulcan Telford Ltd, in their planning and retail statement.

The report added that a supermarket required a ‘minimum threshold’ of 1,800 sq. m and the only other vacant store in Telford Town Centre of that size would have been the former Debenhams building – now home to Flip Out.

Corona said that sites in Dawley, Donnington, Hadley, Lawley, Madeley and Oakengates were also considered, but all of the centres ‘exhibited little to no vacant units’.

The applicant also considered using the previous Blue Willow car park which was seen as ‘not suitable’. The Lime Green car park – which sits in front of the Odeon Cinema – was also considered but deemed not suitable due to the popularity of the car park.

“There are no sequentially preferable sites in Telford Town Centre to accommodate the proposals, and therefore, given the close proximity of the site to the centre, we have demonstrated that it is the most sequentially preferable location,” the applicant added.

“Further, development will not give rise to a significant adverse impact on the vitality and viability of any allocated centres.”

Knight Frank, representing the Telford Trustees, objected to the scheme and said the food shop would have an ‘adverse impact’ on the Telford Town Centre development.

They said that the ‘applicant fails to address the cumulative impacts’ of the proposed development along with the Lidl store on Rock Road.

The Telford Trustees added that one of the ‘primary reason’ for objecting was that Blue Willow and Lime Green car parks are ‘preferable sites’, available and suitable for a food store.

“Firstly, we note that the applicant has put forward the argument that it would be more sustainable to retrofit the existing retail unit, than construct a new food store elsewhere,” said the Telford Trustees.

“Whilst we appreciate this sentiment; there are no policies to suggest that out-of-centre retail should be supported (over in-centre retail) where proven to be more sustainable. In any case, we would argue that in-centre retail is inherently more sustainable, owing to accessibility and increased linked trips. Furthermore, any new-build development could be constructed using best-practice sustainable design techniques.

“There are conditions in place to restrict the type of retail floorspace at The Forge; and these restrictions should not be lifted so as to get an occupier for the building.”

Planning officers for Telford & Wrekin said that the applicant had provided ‘insufficient evidence’ to demonstrate that Blue Willow and Lime Green car parks were not suitable – but Lidl had also carried out an assessment on both sites in its Rock Road planning application and came to the same conclusion.

“The council considered that the two sites could not be considered to be available and suitable to accommodate the food store proposals, and concluded that they did not represent available and suitable alternatives,” said the council’s planning officer.”

The council also said that combined with the new Lidl store on Rock Road they would ‘not result in a significant adverse impact on defined centres’.