County Committee
Three Supermarket Proposals for Morpeth
by Henry Warne of Morpeth Civic Society
There is no apparent lack of choice as to where to buy food in Morpeth – we have a Morrisons, M&S Simply Food, Iceland and a range of independent food shops. Despite all this, a significant proportion of the population travel miles in differing directions to buy their food elsewhere.
It is this that has attracted the attention of Sainsbury, Tesco and Dransfield – the developer currently building new shops in the town centre - to seek planning consent for three new stores. Waitrose are also rumoured to be hovering in the background.
The Sainsbury and Tesco sites are not in the town centre – where the planning policies say they should go. There is a town centre site but it is liable to flooding. Nevertheless Dransfield are about to apply for planning consent for a large, 50,000 square feet, supermarket on this site (A). They believe they can overcome the flooding problem.
The Sainsbury application (B) is for a 35,000 square feet store located in open countryside, on the South side of the town. I say open countryside, but the site comes right up to the edge of the existing development of the town. Sainsbury’s will have their work cut out to persuade the planners that their scheme should get consent. Their chosen site may be designated as part of the green belt – the Regional Spatial Strategy says that the green belt should go around the town to protect its historic setting. Even if this does not happen, their application has to overcome a battery of planning policies that run counter to their proposals. The concern is that this proposed store could affect the vitality and viability of the town centre, including the redevelopment currently being carried out by Dransfield. The Tesco application (C) is smaller in scale and is located on the Coopies Lane industrial estate. This site is also ‘out of centre’ but does lie within the limits of the town and was recently granted consent for a DIY store, although it now seems that this will not go ahead. Given that this proposed store is smaller than that proposed by Sainsbury’s, it’s impact on the town centre may be less but still enough to worry those with town centre businesses.
The town centre site (A) chosen by Dransfield seems to chime with the relevant planning policies, although there are concerns about the impact of traffic on the local road network and most especially upon those residents who currently live in relative tranquillity. It is expected that the Tesco and Sainsbury applications will be decided in August when the Dransfield application will also be submitted.
None of these sites in their present state are worth a photo: the Sainsbury’s site is a featureless green field, Tesco’s site consists mainly of a warehouse building and the Dransfield site is mainly an open yard inhabited by refuse vehicles.
The Morpeth Civic Society has objected to both the Sainsbury and Tesco applications on the basis that neither is located in the town centre. We intend to support the Dransfield application subject to the traffic and parking concerns being resolved.
City and County
August 2009
