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.”
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