Supermarket plan for Uppingham

An out-of-town supermarket is the likeliest way to meet an area's growing retail need, a planning consultant has said.

Aldi and Sainsbury's have shown interest in the market town, members of Uppingham Town Council heard last night (Wednesday, October 2).

The council is revising its neighbourhood plan, after the planning examiner considered there was a mismatch between what the council wanted to do and what has been outlined in overarching Rutland and national policies.

The town's neighbourhood plan had identified retail spaces at two proposed housing sites - at Uppingham Gate, close to the A47 and Ayston Road - but the examiner did not think both were needed.

Rutland County Council’s retail study had stated that 1,000 sq ft of additional retail is needed for the town.

At the council meeting last night, Colin Wilkinson, who has been employed by the town council to revise the plan, said after considering the examiner’s remarks and local and national policy he had looked at a dozen sites, and considered the scheme at Uppingham Gate most appropriate. He also said while there was a national ‘town centre first’ policy on retail, the existing high street could not accommodate a supermarket.

He said: “Unfortunately we have looked at the number of vacant units in the town centre. They cannot collectively accommodate the scale of retail development space. We are therefore looking at retail premises that will have to be outside the town centre.”

He said a concern would be the impact that an out of town supermarket would have on the existing Coop store on North Street East.

New councillor Andrew Mankowski, said he thought by allowing a supermarket on the edge of town, would damage the high street.

He said: “I think that it will have an impact on our town centre. We have a fragile arrangement that is very acceptable and we have to be careful we don’t endanger it.”

The examiner, who held a public meeting in April, had also raised concerns about the density of the seven proposed housing sites on the plan. The revised suggestion is to increase the number of the homes in five of the sites and make two sites reserve sites.

The town council approved the planning consultants initial suggestions and he will now put more detail into the plan, ahead of final sign off.

He did tell the council it could choose not to adopt the neighbourhood plan, but this would make it vulnerable to unwanted development.

If signed off it will then go out to a public consultation, which will be run by the county council.