Councillors bid to stop Sainsbury's (From Oxford Mail)

Councillors bid to stop Sainsbury's

A PLAN for an out-of-town Sainsbury’s superstore for Chipping Norton should be refused, town councillors say.

Scoots co-ordinators, front, Steve Piltz and Geoff Williams, with members, left to right, Linda Silva, Isita Pickering, Sophie Carson, Lee Brain, Susi Dillon and Jo Harper

Chipping Norton Town Council has lodged a formal objection to the London Road plan saying it would suck trade out the town.

It wants the site used for offices or industrial units to provide a better mix of jobs in the town.

West Oxfordshire District Council will make a final decision on the 5,145 sq m scheme, for part of the site of the old Parker Knoll furniture factory, which closed in 2004.

About 150 people, including the Scoots (Stop Chippy’s Out Of Town Supermarket) campaign group, packed the town hall for last week’s meeting.

Deputy mayor Chris Butterworth said: “There is a lot of concern about taking the footfall out of the centre of the town.”

The plan goes against the district council’s core strategy, which sets out what it will allow to be built, he said, as this says the site should be industrial or office use.

Mr Butterworth said: “We would prefer different sorts of jobs.”

The town council also raised concerns about traffic, the effect on a planned expansion of the town centre Co-op and its visual impact.

Members are also worried that if the town’s two doctors’ surgeries get NHS approval to move to the out-of-town War Memorial Community Hospital, Sainsbury’s plan would be a further blow to the town centre.

Steve Piltz, spokesman for Scoots, said: “It is a good first step. The bigger hurdle is the district council.

“A Sainsbury’s would drain footfall from the town centre, it would never recover.

“The economy in most market towns is very fragile and Chipping Norton is no different.”

Mr Piltz argued that council and national planning policy opposed out-of-town sites that could damage town centres, Horsefair and High Street are subject to a district council bid to cut pollution from traffic, and store traffic would make this worse, he said.

Sainsbury’s spokesman Jodie Wales said: “We are naturally disappointed that the town council’s views do not reflect those of many families in Chipping Norton.”

The scheme would save shoppers travelling out of town and the plan would create up to 150 jobs, she said, adding that the site was being “promoted for redevelopment”.

Of 1,147 responses at a Sainsbury’s public consultation, 55 per cent supported and 45 opposed the plan.

No date for a decision by the district council has been given.

Sainsbury’s says 270 car parking spaces would be provided, with a new roundabout at the junction of London Road and Trinity Road.

A 2004 plan for homes and business units across the whole site was approved but never implemented.