Centre owners warn Asda fight goes on
Tuesday 12th January 2010, 8:38AM GMT.
The owners of Telford Shopping Centre today said they would continue to oppose moves to build a massive new Asda superstore in the town.
Planners at Telford & Wrekin Council granted planning permission for the 44,000 sq ft superstore on the site of the authority’s civic offices last week.
Hark Apollo, which owns the shopping centre where Asda currently has a store, said it hoped the application would be called in by the Secretary of State.
It had wanted Asda to stay in the shopping centre and had submitted plans to build a £30 million “iconic” timber-clad building on the Red Oak car park to house a supermarket and other units.
A Hark spokesman said: “We are obviously disappointed by this development, though the fact that the majority of the plans board did not vote in favour of the application speaks for itself.”
He added: “We will continue to vigorously oppose this application and feel confident the Secretary of State will call it in for scrutiny.”
Councillors have also given permission for a petrol station and a 500-space car park on the site as well as outline planning approval for 79 homes.
As the application is outside of the council’s agreed development plan it will go to the Secretary of State for review, but it is not expected the review will alter the decision to grant consent.
The council is now expected to conclude the multi-million pound sale of the civic offices to Asda.
Members of the plans board were split on the decision, with half abstaining on the grounds they were not given enough time to consider the submissions made.
But the four votes in favour were enough to give Asda approval.
Chris Marlow, ASDA property communications manager, said: “We are delighted with the decision and believe it reflects the views of the vast majority of Telford residents, who I would especially like to thank for their continued support.
“We undertook extensive public consultation at various stages of the process and the results consistently revealed an overwhelming level of support.”
By Lisa Rowley
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Telford and Wrekin has a clear conflict of interest – why should they decide?
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the only reason they want it to stay in the shoppin centre is so we still end up payin parkin fees, and for them to still make a profit from this!!!! I dont believe in payin parkin fees whens it for your weekly shop its a joke!!!
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You’ll probably have to pay to park at the Asda too. I think the real reason that they want them to stay on land owned by the shopping centre is the rent that they pay and the volume of customers that they draw.
I hope Hark and Apollo make things as difficult as possible for Asda, probably a judicial review of the permission and I hope they win because their proposal is far superior to Asda’s own.
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Are Hark Apollo running scared that this will be the first of many to pull out of the Telford Town Centre? Surely Asda gets to build where they like providing permission is given? What right do Hark have to demand the supermarket stays within the centre?
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Grey said: Jan 12th, 2010 at 11:36 You’ll probably have to pay to park at the Asda too. I think the real reason that they want them to stay on land owned by the shopping centre is the rent that they pay and the volume of customers that they draw.
I hope Hark and Apollo make things as difficult as possible for Asda, probably a judicial review of the permission and I hope they win because their proposal is far superior to Asda’s own.
Not true Grey, Asda will have control of their car park and are looking at ways that ASDA SHOPPERS will not have to pay to park.
Hark are very concerned that people will not use the town if ASDA isn’t on the site, i would imagine that without them the centre will be very quiet. What they should be doing is trying to attract other supermarkets into this site, but with Sainsburys and Tesco within 3 miles with free parking they know they wont get anyone.
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Hark Apollo have driven Asda out of the centre by continuing to levy parking charges. Its therefore only fair that Asda be given a chance to build a store in a convenient location for shoppers. Hark are just scared of the competition.
Personally, I find “Telford Town Centre” (a misnomer if ever there was one) a dull and depressing place stocked with the usual chains of shops you find everywhere. We need Hark Apollo to bring in the independent traders that add vibrancy to any real town centre. If they won’t provide units at suitable prices, they should welcome plans, including those of Asda to build an additional shopping area. This should benefit Hark Apollo as it’ll bring more shoppers in to their centre as well.
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Using the full strength of the law to retain customers? How not to win friends and influence people. Even if Hark Apollo win this time around, their relationship with Asda is doomed.
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went to town centre today still paystations and barrers uot of order since xmas if hark can not run a carpark what hope have we for the town centre
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”GO ASDA GO!!!!
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Hark Appollo and Asda are interested in profit from the public .They do not really give a damn for the public it is self interest .If ASDA propose to give free parking in some way( probably tokens )then this is of benefit to shoppers this is not out of the goodness of their heart it is sound business sense .This may mean that hark appolo may be forced to consider their parking charges .A double benefit for shoppers .As for the council and their new offices what they need to do is to make sure that we are not lumbered with a huge cost even after the sale to ASDA of the old offices .If we are lumbered with paying on a loan to build these offices for perhaps 50 years then one has to ask how has the public benefitted from their building .Let us have no doubt these will be prestigious offices no doubt furnished to a standard most people can only dream about .Value for money ,functional,yet meeting the needs in future .We do not need a magnificent structure we need common sense .D.L.Barnett
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You will have to pay to park at the new asda store- it is a joke. They have said they may refund parking fees if a customer spends a certain amount in store. I totally avoid the town centre now. I had to pay to park when I was out of work and visiting the library and citizens advice.
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I have commented before about paying for parking when one goes grocery shopping.
ASDA is an American owned comany (WAL-MART). Over here there is no way you pay parking charges to go shopping in the US. I’m sure this is one of the main reasons ASDA wants out of Telford shopping centre and who can blame them. You don’t pay parking charges to shop at Sainsbury’s or Tesco!
When I was in Telford a few months ago I never went near Telford Shopping center I refuse to pay to shop.
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I don’t really care about it because i totally avoid the town centre, i cant be hassled in paying for parking when i am already going to spend money in shops that already pay Hark rent. I can get everything i need from Asda at Donnington or any of the free parking retail parks. It did occur to me that Hark are willing to build Asda a new 30 million pound building to be housed in, so they are obviously not short of a few quid after all you who pay for parking.
The long and short of it is i really don’t care what happens, cause while you pay i won’t be there……….
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was my comment too near the truth for you to handle .what is the use of discussion areas if they are unnecessarily censored.Wait and see what the council do ,I reckon 50 60 years of debt for a palace to house council employees
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I don’t know why you are all so hung up on not getting any free parking in the town centre. Free parking hasn’t been around since 2002 yet people still think there is a divine right to have it. Asda’s move is totally contradictory to planning policy and the council have a conflict of interest – plain for all to see. Everyone is in agreement that the supermarket in Telford needs to move, but it would be best within the box road network. Car parking will be charged at either site but maybe this move will persuade Apollo Hark to incentivise Asda to stay with subsidised parking for their customers or similar. Either way, this has a long way to run and the press reporting of it is lacking foresight
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Tough luck Hark, hopefully this will not be the only major store to pull out. Since parking fees were applied we have avoided using the centre to do our shopping and banking. Asda like us are taking their business else where…….Fair play.
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Hey Libra, I think your ‘G’ key is faulty.
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The basic ludicrous mistake here was allowing a private company to own a town centre and have control of parking charges and development. We live in a democracy, Hark Appollo should have no say in any of these matters, they should be decided by the council on behalf of the electorate. Well done ASDA for making a stand. If you feel like leaving Telford altogether, Shrewsbury would welcome a proper ASDA rather than the pathetic token branch that exists there now.
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@John Howard, Only it’s not a ‘Town Centre’ it’s a shopping centre and has almost always been privatly owned. Our council wouldnt have a clue how to run a place like that, take a look at our ‘district’ centres for comparison.
I don’t understand why people of Telford think they have a devine right to park for free? Go to Shrewsbury? Pay to Park. Go to Wolverhampton? Pay to Park. Go to Merry Hill, pay to park. Go to IRONBRIDGE? pay to park.
There are plenty of reasons not to use Telford Shopping Centre but the pay to park argument is just ludicrous.
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Well said Merk
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I don’t object to having to pay to park for luxury shopping but I do for my grocery shopping since food is a basic necessity.
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Rich I think you’ll find my “G” key works fine and Merk you’ll find that you don’t pay at the Merry Hill Centre.
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According to Dudley Council you will soon have to.
It seems to me that a lot of people are missing a key part of this. Lets face it, whether Hark / Apollo agree the site is in the town centre. Nor are parking charges the big issue in fact they should be far far down the list of considerations. We should be looking at the quality of individual developments. We should demand high quality in our town centre both architecturally and in urban design terms, we are going to have to live with this for at least the next 20 years so it needs to good. Redevelopment of parts of the town centre should be designed to rectify the mistakes made in the past but this absolutely fails to. It is a massive missed opportunity.
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I object to paying for parking when the whole idea of creating the new town centre was to provide free, single level parking. The charging was introduced a lot later, to top up the owners profits. I object to having to pay to park to use community services such as the Library and citizens advice. Its a disgrace.
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