'Surprise' at public lack of interest in supermarket plan appeal

Published on 5th April 2007 in News

Sir -

Howden Civic Society fielded a team of three to four people at the two full days of the public inquiry into the rejection of the planning application for the development of thee former Geodis/United Carriers site. Given the importance of the issue to Howden we were surprised how few members of the public attended and that the press appeared to be absent. Your readers might like to know what the Civic Society said to the Planning Inspectorate who presided. I set out below in abbreviated form the statement we made:

• We recognise that Howden is unlikely to get the public parking spaces and affordable housing it urgently needs without the provision of a small supermarket, but we said we would vigorously oppose anything larger than the modest size originally proposed. Anything larger would run the risk of damaging the trade of the small individual shops which make our Marketplace so distinctive.

• We argued that the public parking spaces need to be located as close to Hailgate and High Bridge as possible if they are to be fully used by Howden residents and visitors to the shopping facilities of the town.

• For similar reasons we requested a controlled pedestrian crossing across Hailgate to High Bridge.

• We asked for improvements in the design of the proposed supermarket building itself, that it should respect the proximity of the Minster and the conservation area, that there should be no brash signage and that it should be screened by trees and shrubs.

• To reduce disturbance from delivery vehicles, we argued that deliveries should be restricted to the time slot of 8am to 10am.

• Finally we requested that if construction proceeded, pile-drivers (particularly of the dropping-weight variety) should be banned from the site, given the damage they could cause to the Elizabeth Homes, to the listed building now occupied by the Customer Service Centre, to other properties nearby and, not least, to the nerves of their long-suffering occupiers and residents of Howden.

We know some of these demands are outside the brief of the Inspector but thought they were worth making publicly so that the developers and ERYC both would know where the Civic Society stands on these matters.

Roger Watkins

(Chairman, Howden Civic Society)