Want to keep Bingley as a market town? Object to Tesco's

Tesco have submitted a planning application for a 40,000 sq ft supermarket on the site of the former Bingley Auction Market (for those less familiar with the town this is where they hold car boot sales and clog up the town on a Sunday). This is the fourth such application for the site with all the previous applications being refused. The link above will take you to the planning web site and you might want to have a go at submitting a comment through to route (be prepared for a tough time!)

So what’s the problem? What should you say?

1. The Auction Market site is designated in the adopted plan as employment land and this designation was supported by the Strategy & Action Plan for Airedale – a retail development is a departure from the rUDP (replacement Unitary Development Plan) and contrary to Bradford Council’s agreed regeneration strategy and priority

2. This is an out-of-centre development (A location outside a town centre boundary but within defined development limits). It is likely that there will be an argument to position the development as “edge-of-centre” but guidance suggests that this applies only to locations with about 200m of the town centre

3. As an out of centre development the proposed supermarket is contrary to the provisions in Planning Policy Statement 6 (PPS6) Town Centres – the key considerations are a) need for the development (section 3.8-3.11 of PPS6); b) scale of the development (section 3.12); c) the sequential test (section 3.13 – 3.19)

4. A significant element of the PPS6 assessment is the impact of the development and the extent to which the development will compromise the economic life of the town. Tesco will argue that they are creating 350 jobs but all the substantive, independent research shows that supermarket developments destroy as many jobs as they create. A supermarket development will draw business away from the town centre – especially convenience shopping such as food, pharmacy and household goods. All of these goods are currently available within the town centre itself from small traders and from a supermarket (the Co-op)

5. The Airedale Masterplan identifies the auction market and adjacent Coolgardie sites as central to the delivery of a good quality, creative and technological employment park – delivery of these high skilled jobs would be compromised by a supermarket development on the site

6. The policy framework for retail and leisure on Bradford is found in section 7 of the replacement UDP – crucially this proposal is contrary to Policies CR2, CR3, CR5 and CR7

You may wish also to raise issues of highway safety, congestion, impact on Bingley Grammar School, flooding and drainage. But remember that, unlike the policy principles above these matters can be dealt with through the planning process and have (in the main) engineering solutions.

Who should you write to?

Local Councillors:

Bingley: David Heseltine, John Pennington, Robin Owens (John & Robin are both members of the Shipley Planning Panel with Robin being Chairman)
Bingley Rural: Simon Cooke, Margaret Eaton, Mike Ellis (Mike chairs the Regulatory & Appeals Committee)

You can also write to the planning service directly quoting the application number (Application No 09/04421/FUL) - contact details are here

My advice is to write directly to the planning service or to the Director of Regeneration at Jacobs Well, Bradford, BD1 5RW (planning.bradford@bradford.gov.uk) with a copy to your councillors requesting they make sure the objection or concern is lodged. The period for objections appears to have ended but I see no reason to stop sending in objections.