Superior alternative to superstore site will regenerate area

I WRITE as a former chartered surveyor who has specialised in the identification of food superstore and supermarket sites and their subsequent development since 1970. There is a vastly superior alternative superstore site to the one proposed by Tesco in the Holme Valley (Letters, Yorkshire Post, January 28).

My consultancy is promoting a food superstore on the site of the Keith Drake premises and Kirklees highway depot fronting onto Woodhead Road, Honley. An early planning application for a food superstore, having a gross floor area of approximately 50,000 square feet, will be made in due course, when the local authority have decided whether to sell all or part of their site.

In either case, a satisfactory development can be achieved.

I believe that the majority of residents in the Holmfirth and the Holme Valley will welcome a quality foodstore. This site is superior to the Tesco proposal because it is strategically placed, fronting onto Woodhead Road, which is the main arterial route from all of the Holme Valley, as most people in the valley gravitate to Huddersfield.

Secondly, the Tesco site is out of town, being midway between Holmfirth and New Mill, whereas the Woodhead Road site is edge of centre to Honley town centre and meets the requirements of the present Government’s National Planning Policy Framework. This fact is accepted by Tesco.

Additionally, the Woodhead Road site has other benefits compared with the Tesco site in that it has a better highway access, total regeneration of a run down area and the council tax and ratepayers or Kirklees will benefit financially.

I am confident that common sense will prevail and that the good people of Holmfirth and the Holme Valley will not be bullied by the Tesco PR machine, active at the present time.

From: Annis Heathcote, Lydgate, Saddleworth.

WITH reference to the proposed new Tesco at Holmfirth, as a shopper for many years in the Holmfirth-Meltham area, we noticed a big change in the parking facilities at Holmfirth Co-op car park after Morrisons took over the Meltham supermarket.

Up to then car parking had been difficult at the weekend, but not any more, as if Holmfirth shoppers had deflected to Meltham. Perhaps now that will reverse and they will come back to Holmfirth. On the Saddleworth side of the Pennines where I live, Tesco opened a new store in Greenfield about 15 months ago and then a farm shop opened afterwards with a cafe in Dobcross and has continued to do a roaring trade.

Just a thought.

From: Alan Chambers, Highwood Grove, Moortown, Leeds.

I AM increasingly concerned about the Government’s planning reforms. They’re right to talk about protecting Green Belts, National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty when decisions are made about where development should take place, but what about the 60 per cent of England’s countryside that is none of these things – like a lot of our local countryside?

Since 1945, successive governments have protected the countryside for its own sake – which means thinking carefully before building in the countryside, and ensuring it is an option of last resort.

For almost 20 years there has been a requirement that land that’s been used before – brownfield land – should be developed before green fields. The Government is proposing to abandon this policy, yet a new report by the Campaign to Protect Rural England demonstrates that the supply of brownfield land is increasing – there is enough to provide 1.5 million new homes.

Protecting the countryside and building on brownfield land go hand in hand. Time is running out – I gather that Ministers are considering the final changes to their new planning policies. If something is not done soon to get them to change their plans, much of our countryside will be at risk.