Supermarket seeks greenway for growth

CROMWELL Community Board members have asked for more information before deciding whether to sell a strip of greenway needed for a proposed expansion of Cromwell New World.

Foodstuffs wants to buy 609sq m of the Waenga Dr greenway reserve. This would reduce the width of the greenway from 25m to 10m.

Foodstuffs would then improve car park access, by constructing another customer entrance off Waenga Dr, on the south side of a proposed 758sq m building extension, a report to the board on Tuesday said.

The expansion was needed because of growth in Cromwell and if Foodstuffs could not expand on its existing site, it might need to move to another location away from the town centre, information from Foodstuffs in a report to the board said.

The Cromwell New World has three road frontages: Waenga Dr, Murray Tce and Elspeth St, the multiple road frontages meaning the only adjoining land that is not road is the Waenga Dr greenway, on New World’s southwest boundary.

Board members said they acknowledged the importance of the business to Cromwell’s town centre and were not opposed to selling the land, but were uncertain about selling the land before the Cromwell master plan process had been completed, particularly as feedback from residents so far showed how much people wanted greenways in the town centre.

The board decided to table the item until it had been referred to the master plan consultants for feedback.