Shrewsbury Town Centre Residents Association (Neutral)
Comment submitted date: Fri 25 May 2012
On behalf of the Shrewsbury Town Centre Residents Association we wish to ensure that this development does not hazard the vitality of the town centre retail trade.
Accordingly we seek several conditions to further this aim.
We seek two relevant conditions on the Waitrose supermarket. The first is to limit the goods sales to convenience goods, a condition that the developers had accepted at one of the Liaison meetings held under the auspices of the Shropshire council. Secondly we would like a condition that emphasised the importance of using as much local produce as possible including fruit, vegetables and bread in order to support local businesses and farmers.
We have concerns about the seven small retail outlets, and seek a condition that ensures that they provide services to the public rather than the sales of comparison goods.
Finally we are concerned that the considerable increase in the floor space of the garden centre is not used to expand the types of its comparison goods being sold. Comparison goods identifiable as relevant to a gardening are obviously acceptable but comparison goods unrelated to gardening should be excluded.
We trust that our concerns will be considered seriously in the light of the National Planning Policy Framework, which emphasises the need to protect town centre retail trade from expanding out-of-town retail outlets.
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