Plan to relocate Tesco flies in the face of Ely Masterplan
RECENT stories carried by your paper indicate that major changes could soon happen in Ely.
East Cambridgeshire District Council spent thousands of pounds developing an Ely Masterplan. One of the fundamentals of the plan was to develop vacant and underused land in the town centre for retail expansion, something that I support.
In the masterplan the Lisle Lane area is zoned for housing but now has a large supermarket dominating the area, which at least has the advantage of being on the edge of the centre, hopefully, reinforcing footfall in the city.
The major project to relocate Tesco with various other retail uses further out of town flies in the face of the masterplan, which suggests that the land should be used for employment and DIY store-type uses.
The ambitious station gateway improvement is to be welcomed but not at the price of further undermining the viability of the current town centre, or indeed the status of the masterplan.
You may also want to watch:
The council has a role in economic development but it also has a planning function. Is it going to encourage the further hollowing out of the city by consenting to out-of-town developments?
CLLR IAN ALLEN
Most Read
- 1 Independent shop full of fresh food – despite national shortage
- 2 Christmas lights switch-on event cancelled over 'Covid uncertainty'
- 3 Mark's 27 unanswered questions over volunteers to control parking
- 4 ‘High risk’ paedophile had indecent images of children on his phone
- 5 Off-duty detective snares £200k drug dealer
- 6 Did you bite your husband's leg? ‘No, he knocked all my teeth out- I could not bite his leg’
- 7 Tractor driver error may have caused freight derailment in the Fens
- 8 Van driver in ‘life threatening condition’ after crash
- 9 Top Cabinet post for NE Cambs MP Steve Barclay
- 10 Man confronted in live stream cleared of all sex abuse allegations
Via e-mail
