Plans for Ludlow superstore get key backing
A controversial out-of-town supermarket in Ludow should be granted permission to go ahead, council officers have said.
Shropshire Council planning officers have concluded there is no reason why the store and petrol station at Rocks Green, off the A49 as it bypasses Ludlow, should not be built.
The move comes after nearly two years of opinion-seeking from official bodies while the plans, by Blackfriars Developments, have been in limbo.
A decision will be made by Shropshire Council's south planning committee on October 11.
'Love Ludlow' campaigners, made up of representatives from a raft of official town organisations, have now issued a 12-point letter opposing the proposal to be considered at the meeting.
The letter says the Love Ludlow group represents Ludlow's chamber of commerce, town council, civic society, conservation committee and town centre residents' association, as well as campaign groups Ludlow 21 and CPRE, and Conservative, Labour and Green Party groups in the area.
In the letter, Tish Dockerty, secretary of Ludlow Chamber of Commerce and chair of Love Ludlow, says: "Much of Ludlow's appeal as a market town lies in its independent food retailers, pubs and restaurants, whose futures are interlinked.
"Ludlow is therefore particularly vulnerable to predatory food retailing, and justifications for new capacity, particularly out-of-town-centre capacity, must be treated very cautiously."
But a recent independent report by Johnathan Wadcock of Peter Brett Associates, commissioned by Shropshire Council, concluded the proposed store would not lead to a "significant impact" from loss of town centre business, even if the effect of the town's current Tesco store was taken into account. Developer Blackfriars also maintains that store's impact would be minimal, as the town's "unique and specialist" town centre retailers served a "different need".
