Revised Newport development plans to be put forward
Friday 9th September 2011, 7:30PM BST.
A controversial masterplan to bring a huge supermarket, business park and hundreds of homes to Newport has been revised after comments from residents and traders.
A Facebook campaign was launched and hundreds of comments have been submitted over the scheme planned for the southern edge of the town.
The revised plans will be unveiled by Telford & Wrekin Council at a public exhibition in the Cosy Hall between 4pm and 8pm on Wednesday.
The scheme is being put together in conjunction with developers Davidsons and St Modwen and aims to deliver a high quality commercial, retail and residential development, the authority said.
The team has been reviewing feedback from the initial exhibition held in July and has now revised the project’s masterplan.
The changes include reducing the number of proposed homes from 400 to 350; increasing the amount of open and green space proposed on the site; reducing the size of the proposed care home and ensuring its location is near to facilities.
Community and leisure facilities would be incorporated. The plans still include a major supermarket development and the creation of a modern business park, which, developers say, will create new jobs.
Council deputy leader Richard Overton, cabinet member for borough towns development, said: “We have listened to the views of residents on the initial exhibition and feel that the scheme we now have will deliver sustained economic growth in Newport. It will also provide new homes for young people in the area as well as helping families onto the housing market.
“This, coupled with the creation of 500 jobs on the proposed business park, will help Newport to grow alongside its neighbouring towns.
“We believe the scheme has been sensitively designed and the proposals seek to connect the site with the town centre in terms of good pedestrian routes and a new subsidised bus service.
“This will mean that we can deliver a new food store to provide more choice and competition and reduce the number of shoppers leaving Newport to shop elsewhere, as well as encouraging link trips to the food store and town centre shops.”
The plan is one of three being proposed for the town.
Indigo Planning has put in an application to build a supermarket, cafe and car parking in Audley Avenue.
A third proposal has also been mooted to build about 300 homes at the back of Newport’s Moorfield School.
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“We have listened to the views of residents on the initial exhibition …..”
Well clearly not, as the main point of contention in peoples opposition has been the superstore which WILL decimate the High Street beyond recognition.
Most people seemed to accept some level of increased house-building over the next decade was needed provided the infrastructure was developed to meet the need.
Someone posted this link – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/15_02_06_highstreet.pdf – on the Save Newport Facebook page … 91 pages of a Government sponsored report from five or more years ago which spells out the dangers to small market towns and communities if developments such as this one is allowed to go ahead !!!
The section on the effects on the local economy says “Without the widespread existence of local businesses, money will be drained from local economies. This will have a long term adverse affect on local and regional areas in the UK as there will be a discontinuation of local cash flows. Some studies show that 50% of turnover from local retailers is returned to the local economy. However large retailers may return as little as 5% to the local economy.”
And from elsewhere “‘traditional’ local small shops or independent convenience stores are disappearing rapidly. Once a ‘tipping point’ is reached many small shops could be lost instantly as wholesalers no longer find it profitable to supply them, resulting in the urgent need for a review of the market. … The small retail sector is a key driver of: entrepreneurship, employment, skills, local economies, innovation, and sophisticated business networks, as well as accessibility to vital goods and services, diversity, social inclusion and community activities.”
Clearly Telford & Wrekin’s idea of ‘sustained economic growth’ differs from that of experienced independent researchers who don’t have a vested financial interest in the development.
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NIMBYs the lot of ‘em!
No doubt these people would have objected to the railway and canal coming to Newport which is what made Newport.
I imagine that these NIMBYs all live in houses that they would have objected to being built if they had lived elsewhere in the town.
What do these people want? Everyone to live in caves, hunter gathering? Its progress and high time these NIMBYs accepted that they benefit from it.
Rural Towns are not the elite’s play ground!
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Errrr …… no !!!
Neither the railway no the canal were instrumental in the town being created – it’s originally a settlement from Saxon times and was expanded during the Norman conquests. It’s charter status was given by Henry I – I think you’d have to agree, slightly before canals and railweays came into being.
Indeed both the railway and canal were brought through Newport to take advantage of the flourishing trade in the town.
A little research would have shown that people are not in general objecting to sustainable and manageable growth in the housing stock, but are objecting to 1,100 houses appearing in a very, very short space of time – even the glittering metropolis of Telford is not attaining that level of growth.
Peoples main objection is the council backed inclusion of a major superstore one and a half times the size of Sainsbury’s at Telford being forced on the town which will, kill the High Street and Community hub …. full stop.
Coincidentally, I think you will find people locally have for many years supported the renavigation of the canal from Norbury Junction back through Newport to Wappenshall and beyond – why not take a stroll along the canal and read the info boards about this ???
Positive reaction was also given to a recent suggestion that long-term the railway line could be reinstated between Wellington and Stafford via Newport (which is now on the Network Rail list of possibilities)
I refer you to the link I posted above with is a Government funded but independently produced report of the effects of such development on any small town. Far from being to the benefit of a given local area, these developments have, and will continue to do so, destroyed the life of small towns around the country.
In our own county, you need only look at Market Drayton, Ellesmere, Oswestry, Whitchurch, and to a lesser extent Wellington, to see what the near future holds if this developement goes ahead unimpeded.
Still, let’s not let fact get in the way shall we …..
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Why people don’t develop the Newport market. It is such a nice building in the middle of the town. It would be nice if they created a kind of shopping centre, but keeping it simple, nothing grand as it would loose its character. Have small shops with a variety of business, so people could have more options. When I say shops I mean, open everyday of the week. The stalls turned into small shops with doors and windows. I have seen historical buildings turned into small shopping centres where the outside of the building has been preserved and the inside was turned into something nice and pleasant and the people felt proud of going there.
Don’t understand me wrong, but Newport market has nice stalls inside and nice people, but they would benefit from a nicer environment. A lot of people from Newport do not go anywhere near of the market as they don’t like certain stall holders that make Newport market an unpleasant experience to them and to other stall holders.
If a bigger supermarket comes to town it will kill more small business and it will turn Newport into a common town, loosing its nice character and charm.
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You always see something like the following
“This will mean that we can deliver a new food store to provide more choice and competition and reduce the number of shoppers leaving Newport to shop elsewhere, as well as encouraging link trips to the food store and town centre shops.”
on most statements for planning and it makes me laugh because, if the new supermarket has free parking, people just wont bother going into town, a new subsidised bus service, most likely run for a couple of years then cut, stating not enough revenue on it.
then more than likely the town will be dead anyway.
When will planners take note, out of town developments kill town centres.
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Information is power and now I’m a !@#$ing dcatitor.
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