Planning refusal may scupper town hopes for supermarkets

Asda wants to realise a long held dream dating back a decade of creating a store in the town by demolishing various buildings and building a store on land at Dewsbury Road, while Morrisons, buoyed by a huge level of public support, is eager to demolish the existing NuSwift Factory and construct a food store and petrol filling station on land at Wistons Lane.

Members of Calderdale’s Planning Committee will decide whether to permit the applications on Tuesday but already the recriminations have started, with former council leader John Ford, who was recently re-elected to the council, attacking the advice to refuse permission.

Now an Elland ward councillor, he told the Yorkshire Post that investment was vital to the town’s future and that he would be vigorously supporting the Morrisons application.

He said: “Obviously I am very disappointed and I shall be at Tuesday’s meeting to have my say. I think it is going to be a very interesting meeting. I did think the Morrisons plan would be the one that could be easily got off the ground and every minute that is lost is detrimental.”

Public support for Morrisons has been almost unprecedented with 467 letters of support received, as well as a 100-page petition in favour of the application, with only 40 letters of objection.

Coun Ford added: “It’s striking because most people don’t want the things in general yet here we have most of the public saying they want it.”

Ward councillor Pat Allen said: “I fully support this application. I have no objections on highways grounds. They could not have done any more and I would commend the highways officer and Morrisons design team.

“I fully support Morrisons because of the retention of the NuSwift jobs, (the factory is going to be relocated), and creation of the new Morrisons jobs.

“I also support the possibility of land being retained and designated for car parking for the potential railway station which is long overdue. I therefore fully support this application.”

A previous attempt by Morrisons to build a food store on this site was refused in March 2000 and according to Geoff Willerton, head of planning, this one is no nearer to becoming a reality.

He said: “It has been identified that Elland needs one new supermarket in order to provide local residents with local convenience shopping facilities.”

However, in his report he says the proposal is “contrary to Government guidance” and would also fail to enhance the setting of a listed building, as the site is next to Elland Conservation Area.

Asda’s application also gets short shrift from both Coun Allen and Mr Willerton.

Coun Allen said: “I very strongly object to this application. I am not happy with the access which I believe will cause higher traffic congestion of Dewsbury Road, the Riorges Link, Huddersfield Road and Southgate.

“I am very concerned about the fact that part of the site is already occupied by three firms, one in existence for 28 years and an extremely specialised company, one of the others for 24 years and the other for seven years.”

Mr Willerton said the proposal was not acceptable and did not tally with policies in Calderdale’s Unitary Development Plan.

He said the proposals for the Elland Riorges Link, Huddersfield Road, Southgate Dewsbury Road and Westbury Street would result in significant delays and queueing of vehicles to the detriment of the free and safe flow of traffic in Elland.

He adds: “This would be further exacerbated by the proposed crossing facilities for pedestrians, making it more dangerous to cross in front of frustrated drivers to the detriment of highway safety.”

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