Supermarket giants Asda and Tesco could be dealt a blow when their rival planning applications for stores in Old Lane, Beeston, go before councillors next week.
Planning officers are recommending refusal of BOTH applications – Asda is hoping for a new bigger store on its current Old Lane site and Tesco aims to build a new supermarket nearby.
Councillors will consider the council officers’ recommendations at a plans panel meeting at Leeds Civic Hall next Thursday. The meeting is open for the public to attend.
The reports – which can be viewed here – say both plans have backing from sections of the community following a substantial PR camapign from both companies. It’s also acknowledged that the extra jobs created in the area would also be welcome.
However, planning officers feel there could be an adverse effect on existing smaller independent stores, particularly in the Dewbury Road area and in Holbeck, and confilcts with planning policy. They say:
“Dewsbury Road is acknowledged to be a town centre that is poorly performing in terms of its provision and that it lacks the large anchor store that could stimulate further commercial and retail provision.
“A new food store operator in or close to that centre could stimulate jobs, income and visual enhancements that could kick start regeneration of the wider area. Without this it is likely that Dewsbury Road will continue in its downward spiral with potential for further economic loss.”
The report concludes:
“In weighing up the issues it is accepted that there would be potential economic benefits and that there is support from local communities, however it is still the case that this is a town centre use being proposed in an out of centre location and it is likely to detrimentally impact on the ability of Dewsbury Road, and potentially also Holbeck, to provide retail and economic vitality for their respective areas.
“This would effectively go against policy in both the UDPR and the draft Core Strategy which seeks to promote Dewsbury Road as a town centre and to bring about opportunities for growth to take place here. Given this conflict with policy and the potential disbenefits, it is not considered that the proposal can be considered to represent sustainable development and is therefore recommended for refusal.”
It is possible that councillors could go against council officers’ recommendations at the meeting.
Our friends at Leeds Citizen blog have a fuller report.
South Leeds Life will be there to report on the debate.
What do you think? Have your say in the comments section below.
Get them both built, the area needs more supermarket options. Tescos is miles away and the ASDA store is simply improving an existing site.
beeston needs a proper supermarket not a local top up store which is basically what the asda and coop are, not everybody has access to private transport and if you want to do a full weekly shop it requires you to either lug everything on public transport or shell out on taxis. to hunslet,morley or the white rose centre. there are a lot of residents in beeston either on low income or elderly so an easily accessable supermarket would be good for the area. Not to mention job creation for local people but also if tesco were given the green light the the land earmarked for development it would be put to better use other than the eyesore we have at the moment. As for it effecting the shops on dewsbury road, the vast majority of shops there cater for the ethnic population of that area. On another note dewsbury road is crammed full of takeaways, count how many from the junction pub to tommy wass you will be amazed. Come on leeds city coucil and listen to what the local residents want and not ” our survey says” as they would in a game show..