Mendip Council Planning Board to meet to decide on new Glastonbury Tesco

On Wednesday 31st August, Mendip District Council's Planning board will be meeting to make a decision on plans for a new Tesco Supermarket in Glastonbury.  The meeting is being held at the Council Offices in Cannard's Grave Road, Shepton Mallet and is due to start at 6pm.

The board is meeting to decide if the new supermarket can be built on the site of the old Avalon Plastics factory in Beckery New Road.  If permission is granted, the new store, which is around 25,000 sq ft, is anticipated to bring around 225 new jobs to the town.

Tesco's original plans were in fact for a much larger larger 40,000 sq ft store, and the company had been granted planning permission, but plans were subsequently shelved when the initial application was called in for a planning enquiry by the then Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs Hilary Benn, due to the possible wide ranging impact of the proposal.

The new plans are for a spacious and modern, but smaller store of around 25,000 sq ft (similar in size therefore to the nearby Tesco store in Wells). The reduced floor space means there will be no café, no pharmacy and the major concentration will be on food (although there will apparently be a small selection of non-food items), while

the car parking area has being reduced to 227 spaces. The building will be constructed around a sustainably-sourced timer frame, with larch cladding, and other environmentally friendly factors include a combined heat and power plant, wind catchers, natural light, and efficient lighting and energy as well as well-insulated equipment throughout the store.

Throughout the country new Tesco stores provoke mixed opinion from locals, although Tesco state that the majority who took part in a consultation in Glastonbury last summer (when 9000 households in the area were leafleted about the proposals) supported the plans. To date the proposed store has received 46 letters of objection, while planning officers have received 120 letters in support of the application, and the scheme has been recommended for approval by Glastonbury Town Council. Les Kimberley, the planning officer in charge of the application at Mendip is also recommending approval, providing the company agrees that the Tesco Metro Store in the Crispin Centre, Street will remain open for at least five years from the opening of the new store.

It is expected that if approved and there are no hitches, the store will be open for business within 12 months.

The plans can be viewed here under application number 2010/2821.