Revised £20m Tesco plan for Brixham recommended for approval
THE £20million Tesco superstore plan for Brixham town centre is being recommended for approval.
The fate of the controversial scheme, which has split the port, will be decided by Torbay's planning committee.
-
Tesco
And officers are saying the redevelopment should go ahead after years in the making with certain conditions attached.
Revisions have been included in the latest plans after concerns were expressed over access.
£3 Off Instant Passport / ID Photos - Fully Guaranteed Service
View detailsDon't trust the photo booths? Get set for your Summer Holidays with J&A Cameras. We are offering £3 Off our Passport Office Approved Instore Passport Photo Service so come in and get it done properly!
Terms: Instant passport photos guaranteed to be correct with the passport office, or we will re-take them for free. No refunds will be given as an alternative. Valid until June 30th 2013.
Contact: 01271 447066
Valid until: Sunday, June 30 2013
The mixed-use scheme would see a multi-level car park with 340 spaces, a 32,000 sq ft Tesco supermarket and additional retail space, small unit shops, 11 town houses, three flats, a Shopmobility unit and public space.
New lorry and bus access plans which were recently shown at a Brixham Town Council meeting in January and led to the council rejecting the project on access grounds, have been revised.
In her report, planning officer Ruth Robinson says Brixham had 'long under-performed as a shopping destination'.
She said: "Town centres face major challenges created by a lack of funding, concerns about consumer spending, the rise of internet shopping and competition from out of town retail developments.
"This town centre scheme has been long in fruition and its viability has been affected by these on-going uncertainties.
"It is an expensive site to develop due to the need to remediate the contaminated land, to mitigate flood risks and to cloak the building to create active street frontages."
Mrs Robinson says the development would help keep Brixham shoppers in their own town rather than see them travelling to out of town supermarkets in Paignton, Torquay and beyond."
Her report says: "The need to significantly increase the level of retail space in the town if it is to compete with nearby towns is documented in successive retail studies and proposals to deliver it embodied in the adopted and emerging Local Plan.
"Town centre regeneration opportunities are increasingly rare in the current climate. They are complex projects and in a constrained and attractive environment it is unsurprising that strong views exist about the costs and benefits of the proposal.
"Those in favour of the scheme contend this proposal will pump money into the town, achieve regeneration, provide jobs, secure investment in the fabric of the town that will be otherwise difficult to come by, provide increased choice and more competitively priced food and, through linked trips, secure a brighter future for the existing traders.
"Those against feel that the scale of the proposal will dominate the town physically, damaging its special character and economically drawing trade away from the existing town centre.
"The concern is that the loss of existing jobs, closure of existing outlets and traffic congestion will lead to the further deterioration of the town centre.
"While there are understandable concerns about the scale of the proposal, the benefits to the town could be significant if the degree of claw-back suggested in various studies is achieved.
"Brixham is in need of investment and in the current economic climate opportunities to achieve this are becoming increasingly rare."
If approved, the developers have agreed to make a £295,300 Section 106 agreement. About £243,000 of that cash would go towards sustainable transport improvements, £15,000 on education projects and £29,000 on improving green spaces.
6 Comments
by Ghecko
Sunday, March 17 2013, 7:20PM
“This is my opinion for what it's worth.
I believe there is evidence to support the theory that a town supermarket (hopefully not one well represented elsewhere in Torbay) can boost all aspects of a small town centre, as experienced in Totnes and Dartmouth.
The centre of Brixham is an eyesore. Visitors and locals alike deserve better than a car park as their centre piece. Even less do they deserve a massive structure that will further increase the claustrophobic feel and depress the spirit (no matter how cleverly disguised)
The consequences of this development will be to consign the only flat, harbour side, town centre land to being a monstrous eye sore for decades.
I do not want to see Brixham choked with traffic and fumes any more than I would other ancient town centres in the country. Park and Ride CAN be made to work if we are steered towards them by highly visible, repeated signage and the destination is worth it.
I long for an accessible, green, tree and cafe fringed space preferably opening onto the harbour and Prince William on this unique site.
We have a number of serious issues to resolve which call for imagination and creativity. With a little less quick fix greed and a good deal more sensitivity and imagination, Brixham CAN be a uniquely good place to live work and visit.”
by kozrak
Sunday, March 03 2013, 12:18AM
“well it looks like logic wins over the limitations and self interest of the few”
by LetsGo
Saturday, March 02 2013, 9:45PM
“I agree with spindle shanks on this. I personally know of two towns where a major supermarket has invested and built stores right in the town centre. Both have seen a huge rise in shoppers and other retail outlets seen an increase in takings. Shops closing down because of a new development doesn't happen, it brings extra trade.
This is a great opportunity to lift Brixham out of a slump, create jobs and extra retail space let alone parking. I suspect that most of the people objecting shop in supermarkets out of Brixham and do other shopping elsewhere too. Brixham used to be a nice place to shop and could be again as Tesco is handing this opportunity to you on a plate. If you want it to go further into decline then carry on objecting but in a minute there won't be a high street left!”
by Crueys
Friday, March 01 2013, 3:30PM
“JUST A THOUGHT ........ I wonder how many people will come to Brixham to shop in tacky Tesco...the Willows has other stores and Paignton people will shop in Paigton still.......... shame it could not have been an Aldi or some other store that we do not have in the Bay and then you may have attracted more people........ I do actually like Brixham very much but would not drive down just to shop in Tesco as we have around 18 in the Bay already, albiet most are Metro stores .I do hope enough people will want to shop there to make this investment viable... I do have friends in Brixham that whilst not oppossed to the plans will still rather shop at Sainsburys or Morrisons”
by Ch1mp
Friday, March 01 2013, 1:26PM
“Could some of the Section 106 money sustain Shoalstone Pool?”
by spindleshanks
Friday, March 01 2013, 8:39AM
“For the sake of the economic well being of both towns, the sooner any substantial supermarket, (Tesco or otherwise), is developed In the centres of both Brixham and Torquay the better. The additional footfall they will generate in the town centres will attract additional retailers to both towns. Without them, the few residents in each town that currently do their grocery shopping in any of the smaller supermarkets in the two town centres are just paying way over the top for their food; unless of course they are doing their food shopping online for home delivery which is really not helping other traders in the town centre.
No doubt all those who objected to the new Tescos in Brixham will be happy to drive out of town to do their grocery shopping in Paignton at Sainsbury's or Morrisons, (or even further to the Willows, Newton Abbot or Totnes)
In my books, "online shopping" equals "out of town shopping" and what the good folks of BRATS need to wake up to and embrace is the term "In town" shopping and welcome anything that attracts it. Totnes and Newton Abbot have not got it wrong in that respect with their town centre supermarkets and even Torbay Council have listened to the Neighbourhood Planning Forum in Torquay and agreed to go with a development designed to bring people back into town.”