News. . . .
April 1st, 2010
Lidl comes to Newcastle Emlyn
Carmarthenshire County Council today approved a planning application for a Lidl neighbourhood store on the site currently occupied by Castle Motors, opposite CK’s. A decision on a second application for another supermarket on the Cawdor site is still pending and will not now be heard until the end of April at the earliest.
Presenting the planning officers’ recommendations, Stuart Willis said that a condition of planning would be the installation of speed bumps either side of the Lidl site on the Carmarthen Road. A further restriction on the site is that the store may only be operated by a food discounter, such as Lidl, and it may therefore not be sold on to one of the major supermarket chains.
A number of new objections had been received by the Planning Department since the application was last heard, and it was clear that all or most of these were made by Owen Banks on behalf of their client, Kevin Davies.
The planning officers stated several times that they agreed with the advice given by their consultants, Nathaniel Lichfield Partnership, that there was sufficient capacity in Newcastle Emlyn for both a major supermarket chain and a food discounter, such as Lidl.
Next to speak was Stuart Owen of Owen Banks representing Kevin Davies, who did not attend in person. Mr Owen made it clear that he was bitterly disappointed that both applications were not being heard at the same time, and he began with a vitriolic outburst to the effect that one reason for this might be that the applicants (Lidl and the Williams family) had somehow forced their application to the top of the agenda because of financial pressures or contractual reasons. The two sites were in competition, he said, and should therefore be heard at the same time. He quoted from Nathaniel Lichfield’s June 2009 assessment that the Cawdor site was preferred to the Castle Motors site, and that there could be sufficient capacity for two stores, although the cumulative effect would need to be carefully considered. What did this mean, he asked, and how and by whom would the cumulative impact be considered? This report had been available to the planning officers for ten months, and yet there was no reference to the cumulative impact in the planning officer’s report on the Lidl application.
He was worried that a decision on the Lidl application now would be prejudicial to his client’s prospects if there were to be consideration of the cumulative impact in the future, and he therefore asked for a decision on the Lidl application to be deferred. He also stated that he did no know why the Cawdor application was not being heard, and could see no reason for it. He complained about a lack of communication from the planning department and said he had no idea when his client’s application was likely to be determined.
Stuart Owen was followed by Haydn Jones, county councillor for Cenarth Ward (Newcastle Emlyn and the surrounding area). He said he had considerable worries about the future for small towns. Sainsbury’s was building a large new store in Cardigan, and Tesco’s had announced plans to double the size of their existing store there, while in Carmarthen Debenhams new store would also pose a threat. Newcastle Emlyn has a number of high class shops, and he noted that the Emlyn Arms Hotel was being refurbished to a “luxury standard”
(Editor’s note: the Debenhams reference reflects the concerns of the Bakers at Ededa J, while the Emlyn Arms is of course run by another friend, Mr Kevin Davies, aka Kevin Cawdor. In fairness to those of us who pay tax, he might have mentioned that we are footing a large part of the bill for the luxury refurbishment).
Councillor Jones went on to express concerns that the rise of internet shopping, the new Bwcabws service and Tesco home deliveries were also draining away trade. Two new supermarkets would therefore help make Newcastle Emlyn more competitive, reduce food miles and lower the town’s carbon footprint.
The Head of Planning, Eifion Bowen, said he did not have concerns about the quantitative assessment of need; he was satisfied from the consultants’ report that there was capacity for both supermarkets. What was holding up the Cawdor application was issues of land stability and otters, and the authority was waiting for response from agencies including the Countryside Council for Wales.
The focus then switched to the members of the Planning Committee.
One councillor suggested that a decision be deferred so that both applications could be determined together, but Councillor Emlyn Dole said he saw no reason to defer again. He went on to express concerns that previously he had stated that one of the reasons for refusing planning permission to Cawdor was the accuracy of the Retail Impact Assessment. He was also worried that the restriction on Lidl (that the site may only be operated by a food discounter) was in fact setting a condition that was dependent on a future application which had not yet been heard. The Lidl application has to be considered as a stand-alone, he added.
Eifion Bowen said he recollected the discussion about the Retail Impact Assessment, but this had not been stated as one of the reasons for refusal in the minutes. This could be looked at, he said. Mr Bowen went on to say that Lidl had not objected to the restriction placed on the site.
Another councillor asked what impact this supermarket would have on the town centre. The impact had not been assessed, he said.
Eifion Bowen responded that the retail aspects had been dealt with in some detail.
Shortly afterwards the application went to the vote. As an observer it was difficult to make an accurate count of the votes, but only one councillor appeared to vote against, while three others abstained.
The application was therefore passed.
Hi all! Lidl is good news for NCE, and without wishing to defend the redoubtable Mr Kevin Davies, how exactly is ‘a large part of the luxury refurbishment’ being funded by us as taxpayers?
I think this is a reference to a very large grant which the Emlyn Arms apparently received.
Let’s hope Lidl makes CK’s work a little harder to keep its custom.