7:20am Thursday 9th July 2009
By Ash Bolton
This is the controversial new supermarket planned for a Hampshire town.
Sainsbury’s bosses are ploughing ahead with the store in Bishop’s Waltham despite concerns it will kill off local independent businesses.
Next week the company launches a public consultation that will see 13,000 residents gauge public opinion.
But bosses admitted that regardless of the result they would still submit a planning application as early as next month, which could see the store open by August 2010.
Sainsbury’s spokesman Rob Allaway said: “We are expecting quite a lot of feedback from these surveys as there has been quite a lot of interest. But we are aware that there is support out there. We will get an idea of what people really think after the consultation. “
He added: “We have done a retail survey that said the vast majority of people in Bishop’s Waltham are actually going elsewhere such as Sainsbury’s in Hedge End or Asda in Chandler’s Ford for their main shop.
“The town centre at the moment carries out a different function. It’s more of a specialist destination.
“We say a main food supermarket can be here as well. It will benefit the town centre rather than destroy it.”
If built the store would cover an area of land more than two times an Olympic sized swimming pool and employ around 350 full and part time jobs.
Henry Fryer, chairman of the Bishop’s Waltham Action Group, said: “Part of their argument is that they say they will draw shoppers into the town but we just don’t see that people will go to Sainsbury’s and then go to the High Street. The evidence is that supermarkets destroy independent retailers.
“The main thing they have got to prove is that it’s needed and we say it will affect the viability and vitality of Bishop’s Waltham.”
Sainsbury’s are holding three exhibitions this month on July 23, 2pm-8pm, July 24, 2pm to 8pm and July 25, 10am to 4pm at the Methodist Church in the town. Residents will be able to view plans and meet the development team who will answer questions.
As previously reported in the Daily Echo up to 500 people crammed into the town’s Jubilee Hall on May 28 to voice almost unanimous opposition to the building of a store covering 35,000sq ft on the Abbey Mill site.
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