Another supermarket in Kidsgrove?

Residents have less than 48 hours to stop a supermarket in the Butt Lane and Talke area. Mr S Sakhdari of Realty Estates Ltd has applied for a change of condition to the Linley Trading Estate site. Currently Linley Trading Estate has planning permission for 139 houses, but if these changes are approved several companies including Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys could move onto the site instead of a housing developer.  It is clear that a supermarket would generate considerably more traffic than a housing estate.

Whilst councillors and residents continue to be pro-business, major concerns have been raised regarding local roads reaching saturation point. Congleton Road and Linley Road are becoming impassable at rush hour times due to congestion. Side streets including Church Street, Old Butt Lane, Woodshutts Street and Unity Way are also seeing a massive increase in traffic cutting through local roads to reach new housing developments recently built in the area.

The backing up of traffic on Linley Road up to Talke traffic lights will be further exacerbated if a supermarket is thrown into the mix. Supermarkets attract thousands of cars a day and the impact has not been properly weighed up by certain departments at the local authority. There is also a potential impact on the health and wellbeing of residents in Talke due to the increase in HGV delivery vehicles.

Kidsgrove currently has a large Tesco supermarket, an Aldi and several Co-operative food stores. Kidsgrove Town Centre Partnership has worked hard to ensure our local town centres are given a new lease of life and the group continues to look at ways to increase shopper footfall. It is quite clear that if another large supermarket is built within the town, we will see less people using our high street. Our neighbours next door in Alsager are due to have a new Sainsburys supermarket on the former Twyfords site and a large Co-operative store in Alsager Town Centre is rumoured to have been bought out by another leading supermarket company in an aggressive takeover. The local view is that more supermarkets in this area would be extreme and excessive.

If you are a resident of Talke, Butt Lane or Alsager and you want to object to the application the deadline to make comments is Friday 14^th June.

Firstly you need to visit Newcastle Borough Councils Planning Public Access system by clicking the link below:

http://publicaccess.newcastle-staffs.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=neighbourComments&keyVal=N5M7WYBM4V000

You need to register to make a public comment.  The application reference number is 14/00362/FUL and can be entered into the search fields.

If there are considerable objections to this application there could be a possibility of stopping it altogether. Please make your views known. If you are not opposed then you are more than welcome to write whatever you wish on the planning portal.  I support fair debate.  Only recently, an independent Councillor on Kidsgrove Town Council accused Butt Lane residents of being Nimby’s, but that Councillor is regularly complaining about HGV delivery vehicles outside his own home due to a large shopping centre.  A whiff of hypocrisy if you ask me!