Retail plans spark calls for link road

ANGUS planners have been urged to make a link road a priority between two retail parks in Arbroath.

Store chain Home Bargains has brought forward a £15 million planning bid for the former Metal Box factory site at Elliot Industrial Estate beside the A92.

The company hopes the project will bring 50 new jobs to the town.

It’s the second scheme to emerge for the vacant site.

Back in 2019, plans were approved for a retail park which B&M, Burger King, Costa and Iceland said they would be coming to.

But the Brackenbrae Investments project never progressed.

Last month, Home Bargains’ parent company TJ Morris lodged the proposal of application notice (PAN) with Angus Council for the land latterly occupied by Presentation Products.

And now a senior town councillor says that if the Home Bargains scheme gets the go-ahead it should include a direct link to the Westway retail park next door.

That site includes Asda, McDonald’s, KFC, Halfords and B&Q.

Arbroath West and Letham councillor Alex King says a corridor between the two retail parks will stop traffic having to go out on to the busy A92.

The council has already spent almost £250,000 on road improvements in the area.

Mr King said: “At the 2019 consideration, I expressed my concern about the access to this site.

“The A92 there is a very busy road. So busy that we’ve had to install traffic lights for the access to the adjoining retail park.

“I’m concerned about the traffic coming in and out of this site. And we may have to install traffic lights on a roundabout.

“The other thing I raised – and I know the owners of the adjacent site are not keen on this – is that there should be a connection between the two.

“You should be able to travel between the two sites without coming out on to the A92.

“And perhaps asking the planning department that they should consider imposing a condition that there is a link between the two sites.”

Councillors noted the PAN application. A detailed planning application is expected to come forward in due course.

Home Bargains has described Angus as a “key area of growth”.

They are planning a live community web consultation on January 12.

The company already has stores in Forfar, Montrose and Arbroath’s Abbeygate centre. It has ambitions to almost double its tally of 550 stores to create a workforce of 40,000 staff.