7:00pm Friday 20th April 2012
PLANS for an out-of-town supermarket and shops must be thrown out to save a town centre scheme, town councillors have said.
Banbury Town Council said the plan for the Kraft foods site in Southam Road would hit the redevelopment of the Bolton Road area where Cherwell District Council is planning a 60,000 sq ft supermarket, hotel, multi-storey car park and shops.
The Kraft plan involves a similar-sized store with 80,000 sq ft of other units and a petrol station.
The town council said this “would detract from the viability of the Bolton Road Scheme and the town centre in general”.
It said: “Banbury needs a town centre supermarket which would be more beneficial to the town,” adding that homes would be a better use of the Kraft site.
Plans for a retail park at the Prodrive site alongside the M40 – to include a Next and Marks & Spencer – were approved last month.
While M&S has pledged to stay in the town centre, Next says it will leave in 2016.
Malcolm Douglas, whose Banbury Cross Traders group represents independent traders, welcomed the town council’s objection. He said of the Kraft plan: “I don’t think it will go ahead. I don’t know where they think the trade is coming from.”
© Copyright 2001-2013 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/trade_directory/