Supermarket plans delayed over job quality (From The Argus)
Get involved: Send your news, views, pictures and video by texting SUPIC to 80360 or email us.
Supermarket plans delayed over job quality
11:40am Wednesday 4th January 2012 in Business News By Tim Ridgway
Major plans that would create hundreds of jobs at a new supermarket are set to be delayed because planning officials do not like the types of role being created.
Asda and developer Barratt Homes submitted the first part of four proposals for undeveloped open land in Eastside, Newhaven, in June.
The plans include a new foodstore with a petrol station and parking, which would create 350 jobs, as well as permission for up to 190 homes and shops and offices for 100 workers.
However, ahead of a planning meeting today (January 4), experts at Lewes District Council have recommended a decision on the plans be deferred so it can be considered with the other three applications.
Council comments
Planning papers being considered by councillors state: “This is an important application proposing major retail and housing, together with an element of commercial, development in Newhaven.
“However, the whole site is allocated for commercial development with an aspiration that a significant number of skilled jobs can be provided within the Sussex Coast sub-region.
“It is considered that the development would not deliver the ‘quality’ of jobs which policy aspires to.”
The undeveloped land was first earmarked by planners for development in 2000 with steps taken to raise the level of the ground.
However, the original plan to create the Eastside Business Park providing up to 1,500 jobs has not materialised.
Planning officers suggest if the proposals are approved, the developer should pay more than £620,000 to the council to fund bus improvements, improving the town centre and marketing the site commercially.
Comments(14)
Tailgaters Anonymous
says...
12:14pm Wed 4 Jan 12
rwargh
says...
12:20pm Wed 4 Jan 12
gmgc81
says...
12:46pm Wed 4 Jan 12
rwargh
says...
1:02pm Wed 4 Jan 12
The Asdas is not the best option for the area but the more central proposals probably are.
Thebuilderman
says...
2:35pm Wed 4 Jan 12
rwargh wrote:First of all does Newhaven realy need another supermarket secondly the council want £620k to improve the bus service market the site and improve the town centre the best way to improve the town centre would be to demolish the car park,the coop the Swiming pool and everything up to Meeching Road start again and build Newhaven something something to be proud of and perhaps encourage other companies to invest there.
If you read it properly there are 3 other supermarket proposals in the town which are not located on grenfield land that's meant to be used for offices, and they are all lcated to the Town Centre. The Asdas is not the best option for the area but the more central proposals probably are.
GRANDAD
says...
4:51pm Wed 4 Jan 12
Wivvy Dave
says...
5:37pm Wed 4 Jan 12
Lewesroadresident
says...
6:00pm Wed 4 Jan 12
matlock
says...
8:09pm Wed 4 Jan 12
The supermarkets do not care about the welfare of the town; The town harbours their competitors. They care only about their own catchment area, and driving their town-centre competitors out of business so that they are forced to migrate to them.
Just have a look at the impact that every other supermarket has had on the towns that they have occupied.
I fear that the council will become intoxicated by the high numbers that are being offered to upgrade bus services, services that are only needed to whisk people away from the town and into the jaws of the new supermarket.
rfairweather@tiscali.co.uk
says...
8:53pm Wed 4 Jan 12
The priority for Newhaven is to improve the joke of a ferry terminal. What an advert for the UK to arrive from France to such a dire place.
Maxwell's Ghost
says...
10:12pm Wed 4 Jan 12
Lewes District Councillors should be utterly ashamed of this report because it's these sort of attitudes to supermarket jobs which makes British people think they are above working in such places.
A job is a job and people should be proud of what they do to be self sufficient.
Lewesroadresident
says...
11:06am Thu 5 Jan 12
Maxwell's Ghost wrote:The job categories you have mentioned obviously involve skills, but they are not 'highly skilled', and many of those jobs will not be based in Newhaven.
Supermarkets do provide some quality jobs which require skilled people from butchers, HGV drivers, HR people, financial people. Lewes District Councillors should be utterly ashamed of this report because it's these sort of attitudes to supermarket jobs which makes British people think they are above working in such places. A job is a job and people should be proud of what they do to be self sufficient.
If the parents of a family work in a supermarket, they are far from self sufficient as they will need tax credits and possibly housing benefit to top up their wages to a level where they can live. Supermarkets are a sham industry- they suppress wages, drive small businesses to the wall, pay farmers less than their products cost to produce and use their financial might to bully councils and critics through the legal system. All so we can have 2 chickens for a fiver. We get what we deserve I suppose.
Maxwell's Ghost
says...
1:18pm Thu 5 Jan 12
The further you get from London the lower the salaries as highly skilled jobs tend to gravitate to where associated skills are, good quality housing and schools.
Brighton, which is on a mainline to London, struggles to generate highly skilled business because it's housing stock is poor as are it's schools and social factors so Newhaven has no chance.
You will also find that locations with poor quality schools, infrastructure and housing also fail to attract people with high skills and companies requiring such people end up re-locating to the Home Counties, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey etc
Newhaven is a working class port not the City of London or one of the London satellite towns.
And supermarkets provide thousands of jobs in the UK, and thousands of related support to industries and it was thanks to UK supermarkets that inflation went down last month.
Why don't you speak to the CBI and read the business pages.
davyboy says...
11:55am Wed 4 Jan 12