Morpeth supermarket battle to end in New Year

Dec 26 2009 by David Black, The Journal

Morpeth Chamber of Trade has consistently opposed any moves for edge-of-town retail development, claiming it will harm the vitality of the town centre and cost jobs.

Dransfield Properties, which is behind the proposed foodstore at Low Stanners, is the company which successfully developed the town’s recently opened £32m Sanderson Arcade, a 32-unit Edwardian-style shopping mall.

Chamber of trade chairman Stuart Lishman said: “We will fight tooth and nail to prevent any supermarket opening on the edge of town.

“We understand that there is strong competition among the large supermarkets for the proposed site in the town at Low Stanners. As a chamber we will support this plan as being the least worst option. However, if it was the only plan on the table then we would oppose it.

“One particular reason to support it is that it will come with several hundred new car parking places which are desperately needed in the town. This need has been further highlighted since the opening of the new Sanderson Arcade.

“The town is buzzing at the moment and hopefully will remain so. We will need to see, however, what happens when Christmas is past and the novelty of the new arcade has worn off.”

Morpeth mayor and town council chairman Ken Brown said: “We oppose out of town retail development because we feel it would detract from the town centre. I would say the personal view of town councillors is that Morpeth probably has sufficient supermarket choice now. However, I suspect a lot of residents would like another option, such as Tesco or Sainsbury’s, to offer more quality and choice.”

Tesco and Sainsbury’s have claimed strong support from local people for their plans, after carrying out surveys.

A county council spokeswoman said the supermarket applications would not go before the planning committee until February at the earliest.