Footpath move in latest battle over Newport store plan
A move to get footpaths in Newport designated as rights of way has been launched in the latest bid to foil plans for a huge supermarket.
Resident Janet Clarke told a public session of the planning inquiry into a new Sainsbury's store in the town that she had started the process to have footpaths on the site adopted onto the definitive rights of way map. About 100 members of the public, councillors and representatives of local organisations were at the Park Inn Hotel in Telford.
They are listening to nine speakers give evidence against Telford & Wrekin Council's decision to grant planning permission for the huge store.
The council stands to earn up to £21 million from the sale of the land.
Mrs Clarke said she had also given evidence to a planning inquiry into an application by residents to have the site designated as a village green, which would have protected it from development.
That application failed after the inquiry but Mrs Clarke said the inspector's report established that the paths had been used for informal recreation for 20 years, which would allow them to be designated as rights of way.
She said: "If people have been using paths for 20 years they have established a right of way. I have now started the process to get the definitive rights of way map altered."
Mrs Clarke conceded that the planning inspector had not accepted that the fields on the site were used for recreation, only paths, and that a claim in her evidence that a report to the council's plans board did not mention the inquiry was incorrect.
The other speakers, including three Conservative councillors and two retired senior officers of the council, all claimed the 50,000 sqft store to the west of Station Road would damage trade on the town's High Street, with most pointing to Market Drayton as an example of the effect out of town shopping could have on independent stores.
Patrick Beech, chair of the Newport and District Chamber of Commerce, said smaller shops were already struggling and losing trade to Sainsbury's could put many out of business. The inquiry is expected to last into next week. Mr Cookson said there might be chance for more members of the public to speak at a later date and he would continue to accept written submissions.
