Asda bid to move is given approval
Friday 12th February 2010, 4:14PM GMT.
Supermarket giant Asda has won its bid to move out of Telford Shopping Centre.
Plans to relocate the supermarket to a new purpose built store on the current site of Telford & Wrekin Council’s civic offices were approved by councillors last month, but was referred to the Environment Secretary of State Hilary Benn for review.
Hark Apollo, owners of the shopping centre, wrote to the minister urging him to call in the application to decide the matter himself.
But today it was announced that the application would not be called in and the development could proceed.
Hark had hoped to tempt Asda into staying by submitting plans to build a £30 million timber-clad building on the Red Oak car park to house a supermarket and other units. That application has yet to be determined but it failed to persuade Asda chiefs to change their minds about the move.
Councillor Andrew Eade, council leader, today said: “We received notification late yesterday afternoon that the plan is not going to be called in.
“It is tremendous news for the borough.
“It means that this council’s vision for the £250 million regeneration of the Southwater area will now move ahead to deliver a major leisure and cultural heart for the borough and a living town for Telford, which will be kick-started by the building of new civic offices.”
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Will Telford and Wrekin now tell us how much the new building will cost?
Report abuse
maybe now hark apollo will drop the parking charges,good for asda
Report abuse
If Hark Apollo had listened to Asda customers when they called for the end of their greedy parking charges, when thousands of customers signed the instore petition, then Adsa wouldn’t have chosen to leave! Good on you Asda, I can’t see any other Supermarket chain stupid enough to take their place.
Report abuse