Plans for £32m retail park '˜would harm city centre'

Councillors last year rejected plans for a mix of retail units, cafes and restaurants at Kingswood, north of Hull, over fears it could impact on the city centre.

But Kingswood Parks Development Ltd and Kier Property have now reapplied to build the shopping centre on the rapidly growing estate, adjacent to Next’s new home, clothing and garden megastore.

It has been reported it could boast an Ikea click-and-collect store as well as shops like H&M and Outfit.

Jim Harris, manager of St Stephen’s shopping centre and chairman of Hull Business Improvement District, said the £25m investment in the city centre for the City of Culture year made the argument for protecting it “even stronger than last year.”

He said: “As much as I can understand Kingswood needs neighbourhood shopping I don’t think it needs the large names that have been bandied around in this latest application. There are only so many bricks and mortar retailers to go round. I think the key to the whole shopping local plan is to keep the major shops within the city centre.”

Mr Harris said spending was up on cafes, restaurants and bars at St Stephens. Retail was slightly down year on year, but recovering strongly in recent weeks.

Fashion retailer Zara is leaving St Stephen’s at the end of its lease in July, but Mr Harris said the spotlight effect of City of Culture had led to more inquiries from national retailers than in the past five years.

He said it would be a “genuine shame to dilute the city centre offer which is now looking so strong and in a great position to grow on the back of huge investment.”

The developers want to build the ten-unit scheme to the north of Barnes Way/Ashcombe Road, adjacent to Kingswood Retail Park, with 450 car parking spaces.

Six of the units would be non-food, the remaining food. There would be 9,894m² of class A1 retail floor space, plus an extra 1,254m² of class A3/A5 floorspace.

In a letter to planners developers describe the scheme as an “important opportunity to deliver new retail floorspace to Kingswood, to improve the existing retail offer at Kingswood and Hull generally, provide greater choice for residents and competition to locations outside of Hull which attract trade from it.

“It will also deliver new operators to Hull with associated investment and job creation.”

A design and access statement adds: “The proposals seek to fully and seamlessly integrate the new units into the context of the adjacent ‘Next’ store.”

Kier Property’s senior development manager, Dan Hyde, told a planning meeting last November the proposals would create as many as 250 jobs and would stop retail spend “leaking” to places like Beverley and York.

But planning councillors voted 11 to two to refuse planning permission. At the time Coun Chris Sumpton said the city centre had been “on its knees for years”. He added: “We’ve been trying to give it CPR and compete with Leeds and York. We’ve started to see an upward trend. We are starting to see investment and this poses a significant threat to further investment.

“I don’t want Princes Quay an empty shell or the Prospect Centre.”

The latest application suggests adding conditions to the planning approval to overcome the previous reasons for refusal.