Council officials back plans for supermarket despite protests

Sainsbury’s wants to build a new store on Penistone Road North and Claywheels Lane in Hillsborough, Sheffield, using land owned by Fletchers Bakery and the sites of the Travellers and Gate Inn pubs.

The store would cover around 9,000 square metres and include almost 500 car parking spaces on the ground floor, with the food store and associated offices being built on the floors above. Architects for Sainsbury’s first submitted drawings for the project last year, but they have since amended the plans in the face of some criticism and held a series of public consultation sessions.

But that has not resulted in the original objections to the scheme being withdrawn or stopped further protests and petitions over the project being lodged with Sheffield Council’s planning department.

Sainsbury’s agent, Leeds-based Turley Associates, has submitted a series of supporting documents to the council for its ideas and said it had assessed the effect on traffic, air quality and flood risk.

Among the objectors are other supermarket giants, including Morrisons, which runs a store in the nearby Hillsborough Barracks, and Asda, which is currently building a new store less than a mile away.

More than 40 residents have raised objections with concerns including a lack of demand, impact on independent stores in the area and traffic congestion on a road network which is already “under strain”.

But a similar number of people have also written in support of the scheme, saying there should be competition between the supermarkets in the area and that people like to have a choice on where to shop.

Members of the town council in Stocksbridge, which is about 10 miles from Hillsborough, have also voiced concerns about the impact the new store could have on a regeneration project in the town.

The Stocksbridge Regeneration Company, set up with Barnsley-based Dransfield properties plans a new “neighbourhood centre” in the town, but is relying on a major food store to anchor the development.

In a submission to the council the company says: “Delivery of the food store at Stocksbridge is fundamental to the entire project and no operator has yet been signed up.

“The proposal will not have a positive impact on investment in town centres and the impacts on vitality and viability of centre will be negative.

“This represents clear grounds for refusal.”

In the 1980s a succession of planning applications were submitted on land off Penistone Road North and nearby Herries Road, which were all refused because of concerns over shops in Hillsborough’s centre.

But planning officers say those concerns are no longer valid in their assessment of the scheme and advise planning councillors to back the scheme.

They add: “On balance, there is no clear evidence that the proposal could have a significantly harmful effect on investment to the detriment of town centre viability and vitality.”

If councillors support the application, a series of conditions will be imposed including the requirement that Sainsbury’s provide £15,000 towards air quality management and £20,000 for road improvements.

The application will be considered by Sheffield Council’s west and north planning and highways committee at a town hall meeting on Tuesday, June 21 at 2pm.

If it is approved by the council, the application will be passed to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for examination before any work is permitted on site.