100 JOBS AFTER ‘YES’ TO STORE #localandproud
Supermarket’s revised plan approved – 10 years after its previous proposal
ABOUT 100 jobs will be created after councillors approved revised plans for a Sainsbury’s store in Alsager.
The supermarket giant secured permission for the new store on the site of the former Twyford Bathrooms off Linley Lane in 2014 but it never materialised.
But Cheshire East’s strategic planning board took less than 20 minutes to unanimously approve a revised application, also including an in-store Argos.
Gary Morris, agent for Sainsbury’s, told councillors a revised application had been submitted because the retail market had changed in the 10 years since the original permission had been granted.
“People shop in different ways now, “he said. “A lot of people work at home which gives them more opportunities to shop during the week so we don’t see the Friday and Saturday peaks that we used to, so that means we don’t need as many car parking spaces because you’ve not as many people in the store at any one time. We’ve got online shopping now, which wasn’t really a thing back in 2014.”
He said that was why Sainsbury’s is proposing ‘relatively minor’ changes. “The coffee shop has been removed,” said Mr Morris.
“But there is a development plot within the site that we’ve been able to create by shrinking some of the other areas and we’re expecting that a standalone coffee shop operator will come forward with their own scheme for that area in due course. The petrol station – that’s been shrunk down to three pumps, that will be six filling points. But we are putting in four rapid EV charging points.”
The car park will be reduced in size from 302 spaces to 249.
Mr Morris said Sainsbury’s used renewable energy and the new shop would include solar panels on the roof.
The application also included variations to the section 106 agreement, which now includes:
a contribution of £100,000 towards a bus service;
£100,000 towards footway widening work along Linley Lane;
£200,000 towards junction improvement work at Linley Lane / B5077;
£100,000 towards highway improvements in the area.
Planning officer Daniel Evans told the meeting because there was now already a bus service in Linley Lane, the contribution would fund that being extended to run on Saturdays for the first three years.
Haslington councillor Steve Edgar moved the application for approval, seconded by Wybunbury’s Janet Clowes.