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Independent report slams Sainsbury planning application

October 2009

East Lindsey has commissioned an independent report on the Sainsbury planning application on Kiln Lane. You can read the full report here but its author, Martin Tonks of MT Town Planning, was fairly scathing about the claims made by the supermarket group. Among its conclusions were:

• That the Sainsbury application would in fact create 39 full time jobs rather than the 200 headline figures, once part-time equivalents are factored in.
• That in the sequential planning test, part of PPS6 planning regulations, Kiln Lane was a far worse site that Queen Street for new retail development, and worse than an expanded Morrison too.
• That the site is probably edge of town, not ‘in town’ as Sainsbury claim.
• That if Queen Street went ahead, there would be no need (even taking the capacity assessment of the Farrall Bass Pritchard report as gospel) for a supermarket of the planned size on Kiln Lane. (3.15)
• That a new Sainsbury store would kill the Co-op, cutting its turnover by 46%, rather than the 15% Sainsbury claims. As the Co-op is cited as a key ‘anchor’ store for the town, this would therefore damage Louth, the report says. (7.5)
• That it would almost certainly harm the small shops (7.7, 7.10)
• The report notes, for the first time in official documents commissioned by ELDC planning, the importance of the Louth export trade, those shoppers who come to Louth from Grimsby and other population centres for a traditional shopping experience.

However, it does not challenge the basis of the FBP report as we have done, nor does it challenge the validity of ‘clawback’ of supermarket spending as a public policy aim. It remains however, a very significant nail in the coffin for Sainsbury’s planning application. I have spoken to Mr Tonks, and sent him our own objections to both FBP and Sainsbury. His final report is now being prepared to include Sainsbury’s subsequent comments on his initial report.

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