Campaigners voice Jedburgh 'ghost town' fears
Ally McGilvray • Published 17 Feb 2012 09:30
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Campaigners are pictured outside SBC headquarters in Newtown St Boswells before the meeting.
CAMPAIGNERS have warned Jedburgh could become a ghost town after councillors rejected plans to build a new store in the town this week.
Developers Sheppy Industries applied to Scottish Borders Council to build a new 1300 square metre store on land formerly occupied by Oregon Timber Frame Limited at Edinburgh Road.
However, despite the promise the new supermarket - reportedly Tesco - could create upwards of 100 local jobs, councillors on the local authority's planning committee voted 9-2 against the plans amid concerns over the loss of employment land and fears it could have an adverse affect on the town centre.
Speaking to the Border Telegraph following the decision at Scottish Borders Council headquarters in Newtown St Boswells on Monday, former community councillor Dot Millar, a spokeswoman for local campaign group Voice and Choice, said: "They've not taken into consideration at all the opinion of the people of Jedburgh.
"That site has sat derelict in its present state for the past seven years. There's never going to be another Mainetti's or whatever.
"At the minute the young people of Jedburgh are leaving the town in their droves. It's going to end up a dead town.
"They're talking about keeping the vitality of the town alive - what vitality? At this rate, they are driving everybody away and there's going to be no vitality left, none whatsoever."
The application was for planning permission in principle, with detailed designs to come at a later stage. A similar bid, from Crabtree and Crabtree, was turned down in October.
While the local community council backed the application but council planning officials recommended it for refusal.
They claimed the proposed store would have an adverse effect on the viability of the town centre as a retail area, with shops and the existing Co-op supermarket all suffering.
However, supporters of the supermarket claimed the development would tidy up the Station Yard site at the north entrance to the town which they said had become an eyesore and give shoppers more choice and more competitive prices.
Councillor Carolyn Riddell-Carre, Scottish Borders Council's Executive Member for Planning and Environment, said: "We do need competition but out of town retail is the killer of town centre vitality."
Local Councillor Jim Brown supported the plans. And he asked the planning committee to continue the application to allow further employment land to be identified. But his motion was defeated at the vote.
He said: "This site is surrounded by retail development and is ideal for a supermarket. Why should we single out food retail? It's very strange."
This article appeared in Border Telegraph 17 Feb 12
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