Rejection of retail park ‘would cost town scores of new jobs’

ARBROATH would miss out on scores of new jobs if a proposed retail park is rejected, companies have warned.

Managers at household goods store B&M, fast food chain Burger King, coffee shop Costa and supermarket Iceland have all separately written to planning officials to highlight their commitment to the project and stress the number of jobs they plan to create.

The firms are promising to create a total of 133 posts between them – 50 at B&M, 40 at Burger King, 25 at Iceland and 18 at Costa.

The companies’ intervention comes after Brackenbrae Investments, the developer behind the proposal at t he Elliot Industrial Estate site, off Dundee Road, said it believes planning officials intend to advise councillors to reject the plan.

I ai n Pratt, proper t y acquisitions manager, wrote in his letter: “A new B&M store i n Arbroath would bring forward a capital investment in excess of £400,000 into the town and would support up to 50 new jobs.”

Costa Coffee said the Westway site was the “only suitable location” for its drive-thru store which would bring the equivalent of 18 full-time jobs.

Iceland said it would not open within Arbroath town centre and stressed the proposed retail park was ideal for its location, unit size and adjacent retailers.

Burger King said: “Unfortunately, our business model does not allow for opening in high streets in these locations especially where the competition is already trading from drive-thru units which would place us in an unfair position.

“Given both the existing and proposed retailers we believe that we can open a successful restaurant at this location which will employ up to 40 people from within the local area.”

Developers hope the overall scheme will create more than 220 jobs and boost the local economy by £8 million.

A special council meeting to decide on the retail park i s scheduled for Thursday.