Supermarket plans for seaside resort ‘amount to robbing Peter to pay Paul’

MULTI-MILLION-POUND PLANS have been announced for a discount supermarket, shops and restaurants on a key Bridlington site, creating around 70 jobs.

Fintry Estates, which has been chosen by East Riding Council as its preferred developer for the former Hilderthorpe coach park, will put its plans on display to the public next week.

The £8m plan involves a discount supermarket, four smaller units for shops and restaurants and about 240 car-parking spaces for the site.

Graham Wilson, of Fintry Estates, said it was an “exciting opportunity to regenerate a currently underutilised site in a gateway location”, enhancing shopping provision for locals.

However, the plans were criticised by ward councillor David Robson, who said he had not been consulted. Coun Robson said it would means jobs and business lost in the town centre.

He said: “We are saturated by retail food outlets. This is a lowwage economy and people only spend a certain amount on food every week. If they are spending it in a discount retail park they are not spending it elsewhere.

“You are robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is not regeneration – it is destroying town-centre businesses.”

The 3.5-acre Hilderthorpe Road site was deemed surplus to requirements after the council opened a new coach park at Limekiln Lane earlier this year.

Planning consultancy Lichfields will be holding an exhibition next Thursday at Bridlington Spa between 3pm and 6pm.