REGARDING Plot 73, Columbus Way, Walworth Business Park — town centre traders shafted by TVBC!

As you may all know, the planning application for the development of Plot 73, was approved at the Northern Area Planning Committee on the 29 March.

What all the traders in the town centre probably don’t know is the way in which they were all dismissed in terms of the impact that this development may have on them all.

The development consists of four units, which include a Lidl’s food store, a Starbucks and a Greggs.

The floor area of these units require an sequential assessment to be carried out, and more importantly an impact assessment, in accordance with Policy LE11 of the Local Plan.

The report to the Northern Area Planning Committee reported that the impact of this out-of-town Lidl store would be between 2.1 per cent to 6.7 per cent of reduced turnover in the town centre.

Likewise, the impact of the non-discount stores (Greggs and Starbucks) would be between 1.4 per cent and 6.7 per cent reduced turnover in the town centre.The overall impact on turnover in the town centre would be a downturn of between 4.5 per cent and 5.2 per cent.

On the night of the planning meeting, the speaker on behalf of the applicant was asked by Councillor Neal if the new Lidl would result in the closure of the Lidl store in Western Avenue.

Before the speaker opened his mouth, the chairman of the meeting, Councillor Busk, interjected and advised Councillor Neal that the question was irrelevant in regards to the application being considered.

We consider the question to have been very relevant, and a material consideration. So why then was the matter of existing store closures referred to in the report to the meeting, where it said, “The level of impact should not lead to the closure of any exiting food stores and is not significant in the town centre as a whole. The words here are interesting — ‘should not’.

People should cast their mind back to the approval of the main Tesco store at River Way, where the TVBC assured all that this out-of-town store would not result in the closure of the Tesco store in the Chantry Centre. Well, look what happened there ‘Mr TVBC’!

TVBC paid a considerable amount of money in commissioning consultants Lichfields to identify the impact that the proposed development would have on the town centre, so why then did the chairman of the meeting ‘stamp’ all over Councillor Neal? Could it be that the narrative of the meeting was to be kept narrow and brief. It has nothing to do with that fact that TVBC owned the land.

For the traders of Andover, TVBC have, in one foul swipe, just taken 5.2 per of their income out of their pockets and their bottom line profit. It would be interesting to know how the corporate directors of TVBC on the gravy train, and local members would feel if they were asked to reduce their remuneration packages by 5.2 per cent.

We are sure that the local members would be pleased to hear all traders’ views on the above. Let’s fill up their inboxes!

Local members’ e-mail addresses can be found at http://testvalley.cmis.

uk.com/testvalleypublic/ ElectedRepresentatives.aspx

Paul Flippance, Inter County Surveys, Suffolk Road, Andover