Bradford Council rejects the proposed new Tesco
Bradford Council unanimously rejected plans for the new supermarket off Mayfield Road at the Keighley area planning panel held on 3rd August 2009.
Councillors rejected the new store plan on the grounds of the inappropriate design and materials, highways impact on residents’ amenity and said it was unacceptable in an out-of-centre location, contrary to the council’s retail strategy.
They also rejected outline plans by Tesco for a residential care home, business and office units on its current supermarket site at Springs Lane.
IRATE would like to thank everyone who has helped us in opposing this development thus far.
Unfortunately this is not the end of the matter. Tesco could still choose to appeal this decision. Tesco has six months in which to apply to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister who may appoint an independent inspector to look into the case. If appointed, the inspector looks at the original reasons for refusal, the applicant’s case and the position of other interested parties. A report will then either grant or refuse permission.
With so many appeals being lodged it would probably take at least ten months before an inspector could even get started on this process. The alternative is for Tesco to submit a new request for planning permission, but they can’t do this for another two years.
Tesco’s plans for the proposed store
Tesco are proposing to build a massive superstore on the old Spooners site on Railway Road in Ilkley. IRATE (Ilkley Residents Against Tesco Expansion) is a group of residents opposed to this development.
View of the proposed store from Mayfield Road
Tesco have now submitted their revised plans for the store. At over 80,000 sq. ft the store will be considerably larger than the previous application.
The plans are on display at Ilkley Town Hall – we urge you to take a look. You can also view the plans online here. Here are some of the headlines:
- The proposed store will be 2.4 times the size of the current store (83,358 sq. ft compared to 34,650 sq. ft Gross Floor Area)
- Predicted take from: Booths = £1.6m; M&S = £0.36m; Town Centre = £4.1m
- Tesco admit it is outside town centre boundary.
- According to Tesco’s own figures traffic will increase on the surrounding narrow residential streets. At peak times the number of cars trips will increase to 936 an hour – or one every 3.8 seconds!
- This is an increase of 4 times the existing peak traffic of 229 cars per hour at Railway Road.
- It is an increase of 2 times the peak traffic of 440 cars per hour at the existing store.
For those that want to study the plans in detail two CD-ROMS are available to borrow from the Planning Office (first on the left, ground floor) at the Town Hall in Ilkley – one CD for the new store and the other for the Springs Lane development. They have to be signed for and can be borrowed for 48 hours.
If you would like to keep up to date with what IRATE is doing please join our mailing list.
IRATE Poster
We have created a poster for the campaign – you may have seen it on shops and houses around the town:
If you would like to print out a copy to display you can download it here.
Tescopoly
For information on how Tesco is attempting to ruin many other towns all over the UK check out the extensive www.tescopoly.org website.