Supermarket giant fights on with revised plans for store

The retailer has submitted slighly revised plans for a proposed store at Oxclose Park Road North in Halfway, which are set to be considered by Sheffield Council at a meeting next week.

City planners have recommended that the application is again refused, after previous plans for the site were refused in March on the grounds that the store would have been an “inefficient” use of land which was required for housing.

Tesco has appealed that decision and a four-day public inquiry is set to begin next Tuesday, November 29.

However, the supermarket chain will be hoping that its revised application is instead agreed at a council planning committee on Monday, November 28.

Tesco’s amended plans have relocated the store on the eastern boundary of the Halfway site and have also removed a road link with Deepwell Drive.

Planning officials have advised councillors to refuse consent this time not only on housing grounds, but also due to the “cumulative impact” that both the proposed Tesco store and a new Asda which is being built at Beighton Road East could have on traders at Crystal Peaks.

Tesco says that the development, which will include a petrol station and parking for more than 500 cars, will create 450 new jobs.

However, the plans have met with widespread opposition from residents who raised concerns about issues including traffic, light pollution, noise and the impact on existing businesses.

A total of 61 letters of objection have been submitted to Sheffield Council in relation to the scheme, compared to 11 letters of support for Tesco’s plans.

However, the applicant has presented a total of 316 support cards to the council, in response to their own consultation exercise, which state that the signatories support Tesco’s proposals.

One objector told the council: “It doesn’t matter which part of the site the store is built on; the impact will be customer and delivery traffic on the already busy Oxclose Park Road, which in turn impacts on traffic on Rotherham Road.”

Further objections have come from rival supermarket chain Morrisons, which said the site should be used for housing and added that the existing Morrisons “currently serves the need of the local population.”

Derbyshire County Council, meanwhile, said the proposed store would “divert significant amounts of trade” from Eckington and Killamarsh town centres.

One of those in support of the supermarket, however, told Sheffield Council that opposition is “healthy” and the new store might “encourage the management at Crystal Peaks to focus on securing ‘big name’ retailers.”

Recommending that Tesco should be refused planning permission, the city planners say in their report to members: “Whilst acknowledging that a number of new jobs will be created as a result of the proposed development, this part of Sheffield is not considered to be an area with high levels of environmental, economic or social deprivation, particularly in comparison to other parts of the city, to override the council’s view that the application site is required to meet the city’s housing requirement.

“Its development as a supermarket would represent an inefficient use of land.

“The cumulative impact of the proposed store and the committed development of a retail store for Asda at Beighton Road East will have a detrimental impact on in-centre trade at Crystal Peaks District Centre and on trade in the wider area.

The report adds: “The store will be insufficiently accessible by a choice of means of transport.”

Monday’s meeting of Sheffield Council’s planning board, at which the application will be considered, begins at 2pm at Sheffield Town Hall