Store bosses grilled (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Store bosses grilled

1:20pm Sunday 2nd August 2009 in

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HUNDREDS of people turned up for a public consultation to discuss a controversial new supermarket in Bishop’s Waltham.

Sainsbury’s bosses spent six hours at the town’s Methodist Church speaking to residents about their plans for the Abbey Mill site.

The company is hoping to open a store covering an area of 35,000 sq ft as early as August 2010.

Around 13,000 residents have already been contacted by the supermarket giant with questionnaires to gauge public opinion.

Sainsbury’s spokesman Rob Allaway said public opinion on the store was still divided.

He said: “The idea of today is to discuss the issue as much as we can, input any thoughts that come forward into the planning process, and finalise the plans before the planning application goes in.

“We saw about 100 people during the first two hours, so we’ve had a real good turn out.

“We are doing a wide public consultation and there are a lot of people interested in the proposals for Bishop’s Waltham.

“We are doing a widespread mailing, and we have asked for comments back from that. We issued that last week and have had nearly 2,000 comments back already.

“There seems to be quite a mix of views, so we will get all of them together, analyse them, and share them with the local community.

“There are people who have concerns and people who are supportive”

As previously reported in the Hampshire Chronicle, bosses admitted that regardless of public opinion, they would still submit a planning application as early as next month.

If built, the store would cover an area of land more than twice the size of an Olympic swimming pool, and would employ around 350 people.

Up to 500 people crammed into the town’s Jubilee Hall on May 28 to voice almost unanimous opposition to the building of a store.

One of the visitors to last week’s consultation was Diana Fry, 54, a riding teacher, of Battery Hill, Bishop’s Waltham She said: “I don’t think we need it we have sufficient shops in the town centre.

“I feel it’s not going to be an asset to have the store near the ancient palace and pond. The traffic is already very, very busy.”