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Published:
December 9, 2008
Expansion
of garden centre near Burnham is deferred until 2009
 Controversial
plans for a 35,000 square foot expansion of a garden centre near
Burnham-On-Sea were deferred by district councillors on Tuesday
(December 9th).
Plans
to extend Sanders Garden World at Brent Knoll were unveiled by
store boss Peter Burks in
March (pictured) and were considered by members of Sedgemoor's
Development Control Committee at a meeting in Bridgwater on Tuesday.
A
decision on whether the scheme can proceed was deferred until
next year to allow negotiations with the applicant on planning
contributions and further assessment of a condition in the application
relating to goods to be sold.
Burnham
town councillor Neville Jones told 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
pushed hard for a planning condition of not less than the £300,000
sum currently being negotiated with Tesco," Cllr Jones told
Burnham-On-Sea.com.
Burnham-On-Sea's
Chamber of Trade said earlier this year that the proposals would
likely hurt town centre trade.
 The
Chamber's Chairman, Alex Turco, told Burnham-On-Sea.com after
Tuesday's meeting: "It would seem likely that Sedgemoor will
approve this application once these negotiations are concluded
since there would be little point in discussing these details
if the scheme were likely to be turned down."
"Sanders' own research says Burnham will likely lose £0.5million
per annum as a consequence of the expansion. The loss to Burnham
can be reduced by tightening the definition of goods to be sold,
particularly seasonal goods and farm foods, as well as an increased
developer contribution."
Wyevale,
which bought the garden centre last year, hopes to increase the
size of the store's covered building to 63,000 square feet and
hopes to generate over 100 new jobs. The plans would also see
the number of car parking spaces rising 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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