Fairly straightforward plans to build a new Sainsbury's megastore have become a battle that has rumbled on for FOUR years.
In 2017, the supermarket chain received planning permission last year to demolish the former Homebase site at Meols Cop Retail Park in Southport and build a 60,000 sq ft store and petrol station.
The application was highly contentious and only approved following a five-day public inquiry - called for by former Southport MP and now councillor John Pugh in 2015.
But despite the plans being approved, work never started and in October 2018, Sainsbury’s formally submitted new plans for a smaller 50,000 sq ft store at the same site.
As well as the main store, the development is set to feature a petrol filling station with a 'kiosk' and public recycling facility, new car parking, landscaping and associated infrastructure works (following the demolition of some existing buildings)
Cllr Pugh says a new Sainsbury's store would lead to a hugely damaging effect on the town centre, as well as putting huge strain on the local highway network.
He recently said: “Time has moved on and the thinking behind the megastore has not aged well and nor has the town centre, which will lose footfall if [the existing Sainsbury's on Lord Street] and others move out."
However, documents submitted to the council’s planning committee show that independent analysis carried out for the council shows that the store would remove £7.9m of spending out of the town centre, a figure described by the council as a “limited impact”.
It is also estimated that building the supermarket will facilitate private investment into the town of more than £15m and create 200 jobs, 30 full-time and 170 part-time.
The new proposals were deferred at a Sefton Council planning meeting on July 3, and are now set to be decided on again at another meeting on Wednesday (July 31).
But contracts signed as part of the original proposal mean building work must commence by September , with Sainsbury’s locked into a 25-year lease on the site.
