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.

You can also view the plans online by searching for 09/00857/FUL 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.

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