£15M Aviemore Tesco latest
TESCO bosses are now targeting late 2012 for the opening of their new and much larger £15 million-plus store in Aviemore.
And shoppers in Grantown can also look forward to more choice closer to home, as the Co-op wants to extend its premises in the town’s Square.
Highland Council confirmed yesterday (Tuesday) that they have now received Tesco’s long-awaited detailed planning application for the new supermarket at Myrtlefield on the northern end of the village.
The scheme, if it is given the green light, will create 150 new jobs on top of the 80 staff already working in the village’s existing store.
Mr Doug Wilson, corporate affairs manager for Tesco, said that the new supermarket will provide "a new and improved shopping experience for the local community".
The "eco-store" will have a sales area of 30,000 square feet, around three times larger than the present Grampian Road outlet, which struggles to keep up with demand at peak times and causes traffic problems in the village centre.
Mr Wilson said: "Our proposals for Aviemore will ensure that we can provide the local community with the value, choice and availability that it deserves.
"The current store in Aviemore is too small to meet local demand, and our new plans have met with an overwhelmingly positive response."
He continued: "We have engaged with a number of community groups throughout the consultation process, and the feedback we have received to date has highlighted a number of concerns about the size of our present store.
"We are delighted with the level of support for our proposed replacement supermarket, and look forward to providing the local community with access to the supermarket shopping they have been asking for."
A spokeswoman for Tesco said that they hoped to commence preparatory works early next year and open the store in late 2012, subject to planning approval.
She said there would be 271 car parking spaces in total, including disabled bays.
Mr Alan Baillie, who runs La Boheme hair salon just over the road from the proposed new store, welcomed the latest development, but said the new Tesco was long overdue.
Mr Baillie, one of those who attended the retail giant’s exhibition on their plans towards the end of last year, said: "Local people are not bothered where the supermarket goes on the site; they just want Tesco to get on with it.
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"It has been a wasteland across from us for the past 10 years, since the Red McGregor and Chevvys were knocked down to make way for a new supermarket.
"Since then, progress has been at a snail’s pace."
The recent application by Tesco for the extension of their existing consent, he said, had sparked fears that the project could fall further behind and still be three or four years away from anything happening on the ground.
"When the diggers move on site will be when locals start to believe," said Mr Baillie.
Mr Andrew McCracken, Highland Council’s planning team leader for Badenoch and Strathspey, said they were now in receipt of the detailed proposals.
He said: "We received the detailed planning application from Tesco on Friday.
"It is being loaded onto the council’s electronic planning system as we speak, and should be available for public inspection some time later this week.
"We will start the normal public consultation process as we would with any planning application we receive, and also notify the Cairngorms National Park Authority as required.
"They will decide whether to call in the application to determine the merits of the proposal, and it almost certain that they will."
The actual plans were not available for inspection as the ‘Strathy’ was going to print yesterday (Tuesday), because they were being transferred to the e-planning system.
An application for the extension of the time consent is – at the moment – on the agenda for the Cairngorms National Park Authority’s planning committee on June 24.
Tesco received nearly 100 responses at the community consultation held at the Winking Owl bar and restaurant in Aviemore last autumn.
Calls for a petrol station were among the most popular requests at the exhibition. But the firm has said that such a facility cannot be accommodated on the development site.
Other popular requests were for the store to sell everyday clothes, particularly for children, and for a fish counter.
Mr Wilson said at the time that he was hopeful that the new store could open in Spring, 2012.
Meanwhile the Co-operative has applied to extend its store in Grantown, and for change of use of a flat to staff accommodation at 4 The Square.
The extension at the side and to the rear of the building is for 655 square metres of floor space, 395 square metres of that for retail.
A spokesperson for Co-operative Food said: "We have applied to Highland Council for planning permission to extend our existing store in the Square.
"A larger store will allow us to increase the range we can offer customers, create a more shopper-friendly layout and improve our service to the local community."
