Park-ride and supermarket plan for site likely to win backing

The Catesby Property Group has already built several office blocks and warehouse complexes on the First Point business park on the southern edge of Doncaster, but one site remains vacant.

At present, the plot of land has permission for a warehouse building and not retail use, but Catesby has revised its plans for the site, to include the supermarket and “managed workspace”.

In an application to be considered by Doncaster Council today, the firm is asking for full permission for the workspace building, with outline superstore plans which will be worked up later.

The park-and-ride site is also included in the first part of the application which seeks full permission, and it is thought the supermarket would go ahead if an interested operator comes forward.

The First Point business park is on the western side of White Rose Way, the main link from Doncaster town centre to the M18, which is set to be made into a dual carriageway if funding is found.

As well as the warehouses and offices occupied by firms such as Amazon and First Call Insurance, the area is already home to a B&Q Warehouse, a motorcycle dealership, a Holiday Inn and a pub.

The new 255-space park and ride, supermarket and workspace building, which would provide offices for small businesses on a managed basis, will be accessed from Woodfield Way, currently a dead end.

There are hopes that Woodfield Way will be completed, linking to the A60 near Wadworth, but that depends on the development of the Carr Lodge housing site, which is currently awaiting consent.

In a report to today’s planning committee meeting, officers say one letter of objection has been received from Tesco, which operates a supermarket in the Woodfield Plantation area of the town.

The report says: “The applicant has marketed the site for more than three years and demonstrated that development is unlikely to come forward for compliant employment uses.

“Without deliverable development coming forward and with the need for park-and-ride facilities, the use of the site has come under pressure for these alternative uses.

“The area has become attractive to development and permission has been granted for a range of uses including retail, office, petrol station and hotel use as well as workshops and warehousing.

“The site will link to the Carr Lodge proposed housing site and Woodfield Plantation housing estate as well as other areas of housing in Balby, some which have high levels of unemployment.”

According to the report, the supermarket element of the proposal, which will include 616 car parking spaces and a petrol station, will create 352 jobs, but no specific retailer is named.

It is thought that the managed workspace part of the proposal would provide an extra 178 jobs, which ties in with the authority’s regeneration aspirations.

The report says the two nearest supermarkets, Tesco at Woodfield Plantation and Asda on the Lakeside Park, are currently “overtrading” on national averages and would not be adversely affected.

Officers add: “The site currently has planning permission for a distribution warehouse. However there are three other large units constructed in 2008 and only one has recently been let.

“It is therefore unlikely that the warehouse consent will be implemented for some considerable time due to market conditions and alternative sites in South Yorkshire. The development of the warehouse would be expected to create 368 jobs.

“These proposals would create 530 jobs in a similar range of skill levels, which is a similar number of jobs but provided much sooner.”