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Published:
December 9, 2008
Expansion
of garden centre near Burnham could be decided today
 Controversial
plans for a 35,000 square foot expansion of a garden centre near
Burnham-On-Sea could be given the go-ahead by district councillors
today (Tuesday December 9th).
Plans
to extend Sanders Garden World at Brent Knoll were unveiled by
store boss Peter Burks in
March (pictured) and are due to be considered by members of
Sedgemoor's Development Control Committee at a meeting in Bridgwater
on Tuesday.
Burnham
town councillor Neville Jones will tell Tuesday's meeting that
the garden centre should be injecting more funding into Burnham
town centre - similar to the deal
recently struck with Tesco - if the planning application is
to proceed.
"I
will be pushing hard for a planning condition of not less than
the £300,000 sum currently being negotiated with Tesco,"
Cllr Jones revealed to Burnham-On-Sea.com this week.
It
comes after Burnham-On-Sea's Chamber of Trade estimated earlier
this year that the proposals could hurt town centre trade by more
than £4million per year.
 The
Chairman of the Chamber, Alex Turco, told Burnham-On-Sea.com:
"The Chamber would welcome this development if it were demonstrated
that it would be positive for the Burnham-On-Sea economy."
"However,
this development presents a risk that jobs and revenue will be
diverted from the existing economy of Burnham, with which we are
immediately concerned, as well as that of Highbridge."
"Our
figures show that 105 premises would be impacted and, at £38,500
per premises, this is a loss of £4.04 million from Burnham-On-Sea's
economy per year."
Wyevale,
which bought the garden centre last year, wants to increase the
size of the store's covered building to 63,000 square feet and
to generate over 100 new jobs. The proposal would also see the
number of car parking spaces rise from 369 to 411, and a new roundabout
introduced on the A38 to cope with traffic.
Store
manager Peter Burks believes the extended store would have no
impact on the trade of Burnham shops.
"I
really don't think it should make any difference to businesses
in Burnham at all," he told Burnham-On-Sea.com. "Our
initial planning application restricted the number and type of
products we could sell to reduce competition with shops in Burnham,
and we have no intention of changing this."
RELATED
LINKS:
Burnham
town councillors want centre's product ranges restricted
Garden
centre expansion 'could cost Burnham millions'
Plans
for multi-million pound garden centre expansion go on show
Exhibition
to be held by growing garden centre
Revealed:
Garden centre to unveil expansion plans
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