Supermarket at former school site still on council’s shopping list
A NEW supermarket on the site of the former Jedburgh Grammar School is still very much on the council’s shopping list as demolition works are earmarked for the ‘eyesore’ site.
The Friarsgate school was left redundant once the £32m intergenerational Jedburgh Grammar Campus at Hartrigge Park opened in April 2020.
A public consultation was launched over the future of the vacant site two years ago.
There were more than 600 responses to the consultation with the vast majority of respondents suggesting that a supermarket was the preferred option, with other suggestions being a care home and sports park.
Now a planning application from Scottish Borders Council (SBC) has been submitted for permission to flatten the former school’s ROSLA building on the south side of the site.
The building is empty and in a poor state of repair and its demolition will make the site more attractive ahead of it being marketed to potential buyers, according to the local authority.
Jedburgh & District Conservative councillor Scott Hamilton said: “The consultation was probably one of the best supported SBC has ever done and there was a lot of enthusiasm to see the potential of that site realised.
“But with Covid and difficulties in the market it really wasn’t the right time to market the site and now we are at that period when he have to do something with it to be marketed or developed in-house.
“The town spoke about wanting additional retail and housing, and with both of those you have to go out to market and the advice that we have had has been to do as much as we can on the site to make it more attractive to buyers.
“Some of these buildings are at such an age they will require extensive work to renovate for use or will need to be demolished, that would put a lot of buyers off, so the more we can do demolish the parts that we can will make it more attractive to investors.
“Everybody in Jedburgh will admit that it is an eyesore currently and something really needs to be done with it. The demolition will unlock the site’s potential for future development.
“It will go out to market and be targeted at retail. People said they wanted a supermarket and we can market it to them and at least we can then say we did all that we could to achieve that.”
In consultation one respondent stated: “Many people have to travel to other towns for grocery shopping, many relaying on public transport which isn’t great.”
Another respondent added: “By providing Jedburgh with a proper supermarket we will keep local people in the town, using less emissions from travelling and also using the local facilities more.”
As part of a rationalisation programme, SBC is looking to sell off 10 per cent of its current estate assets over the next few years.