Back in July we published details of Ziran’s latest proposals for Balmakeith, they said they will bring national retail names to Nairn - details in this previous Gurn article here. The full plans are not before Highland Council for discussion yet but on Tuesday last week the South Planning Committee met at Glenurquhart Road to discuss the “Proposal of Application Notice”.
Michael Green told his colleagues: “Just a couple of points and it’s when the application comes forward I would like to see robust evidence on the sustainability of this development. That comes from two sort of fears that I have. One: as is well known there is an excess of somewhere between 20 and 25% capacity of out of town shopping which has been declared redundant. And secondly: on the week that Amazon Fresh announced that they are going to be launching into the grocery market which will change the landscape for all players, I’d like to see these factors taken into account and to prove the sustainability of their proposal. "
Provost Laurie Fraser said: “I’d just want to cover the point of over-provision, I know in retail it is not allowed to be considered but the plan is outwith the [...] it’s outside the town centre first principle and outside an area of development, recognised development so therefore I would ask if the question of overprovision should be looked at as well because if you over provide for something you just cause more and more empty premises and there is a point at which these stores cannot trade."
17 comments:
Local shopkeepers object to new shops shocker !
Under provision in Nairn? We only got Sainsbury's four years ago. Jobs at last for people that had to travel to Inverness to work in shops.
its ok , even if planning is turned down by the council, they can just raise it to a SNP Government level who let everything go through when it comes to creating Jobs.
with or without this retail link , Nairn High Street needs some serious thinking and revamping
is laurie fraser afraid of a bit of competition? :-)
If we don't protect our Town Centres from the rapacious supermarkets and chains then we won't have a Town Centre.
Let them take over some of our less used buildings in and around the High Street.
Amazon Fresh is only going live in London currently. Maybe find out information first councillor. Also I want different shops from the High street, need to crack down on the discount that charity shops get. What rents are being charged, since tried to hire a room in a hotel in Inverness for a conference, was quoted more than a central London price.
Over provision of what Laurie? Charity shops, hairdressers/beauticians or High Street cafe's
What did Liz MacDonald and Stephen Fuller say????
Don't think Liz or Stephen are on Planning Comm
What "different" shops do you want 5.31?
I want a haberdasher and pawnshop and maybe a place that sells fork handles .......
@ Compromised, yes thank you for that - the information as to why Liz is not on the planning committee is in the public domain.
Hopefully a branch of Grace Brothers
Some fair comments from the councillors but there is also some good points above.... We need different businesses in the high st to compliment what we have....
Out of town is not the answer, support for the town centre is
@Black Diamond, there is no mention of a councillor owning a business at Balmakeith on the Register of interests however there is a mention of "Co-owner plots 4 and 5 Balmnakeith (sic) Business Park".
'National retail store' - wow, so tourists will be able to go the same shops as they have back home, that should bring them flocking into Nairn
Any place I visit it's the small independent retail stores that attract me.
Soon we will have Amazon delivering goods by drones so the need for retail space will be completely negated, at least the High St can become pedestrianised then
@Rowan and Martin (very, very interesting) All councillors properties etc are listed on their pages on the Highland Council site.
http://www.highland.gov.uk/councillors/name
@DRoss Thanks David but we would be off on a tangent of a tangent if we were to go into such detail over business history etc.
Never knew you were a Yes Minister supporter Gurnmeister ?.
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