Witham: Anger over decision to turn down store expansion

9:00am Wednesday 27th February 2013 in News

Councillors Paul Ryland, Michael Lager, Bill Rose and Phil Barlow, who are all in favour of the Morrisons expansion Councillors Paul Ryland, Michael Lager, Bill Rose and Phil Barlow, who are all in favour of the Morrisons expansion

Shoppers are up in arms after Morrisons was refused permission to expand one of its most popular stores.

The £10million investment at the Witham supermarket was rejected on the grounds it could damage Tesco’s town centre store and plans to revamp the ageing Newlands Shopping Centre.

It would have created 50 jobs and Morrisons confirmed it would also have been willing to give £150,000 towards other improvements in the town.

There are now fears taxpayers could be left picking up the legal costs if the retailer were to appeal against Braintree Council planning committee's decision.

Full report in today's Witham and Braintree Times.

Comments(5)

lewis911 says...
4:12pm Wed 27 Feb 13

What a surprise Braintree and Halstead councillors have voted yet again against what would be in the overall interest of Witham and its residents.

Would I be cynical in thinking that the interests of Tesco's large store in Braintree is the reason, would a larger Morrisons in Witham be uncomfortable competition for them.

Maybe residents in Witham should vote with their feet and boycot the Tesco stores to make their opinion known, appealing to councillors who appear to have their own agenda certainly hasn't.

P Lewis

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Hunter Gatherer says...
6:35pm Wed 27 Feb 13

Spot on. How often do these outsiders even come to Witham.
Are any of the existing shops owners in Witham against this
expansion except the obvious?
How much longer do we have tolerate these Tesco Puppets at BDC?

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montygirl says...
7:25pm Wed 27 Feb 13

I completely agree,council want to have poor facilities in Witham so we spend our money in Braintree and as thought Tesco opinion is above that of the actual local residents .Tesco Witham is poorly stocked and doesn't have anything like choice of Morrison's plus if you are in the north of the town why would you shop there .So basically for Tesco you would go out of town anyway for any clothing or other non food goods which is what the Council want.So basically the decision is unpopular with only the non residents and non traders in Withal.Money talks eh !

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BitCruncher says...
9:36pm Wed 27 Feb 13

I don't think it's Tesco. It's the BDC Great Plan that's important. It's far more important than the interests of Witham residents.

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philip jinman says...
3:44pm Thu 28 Feb 13

Morrison's ought to take their case to an independent appeal
or sell their store to Tesco then BDC would grant permission
Before sKorch e-mails he does not even use his proper name
Hides his identity
BDC have never before worried about affect three Tesco's in Braintree would have on other traders
There's more to this than meets the eye
I bet the councillors who voted against have nothing to do with Witham or shop at Morrison's
They will drive the shoppers to Colchester and Chelmsford

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