Memorial Stadium supermarket plans boosted

Bristol Rovers’ plans to see their Memorial Stadium redeveloped by Sainsbury’s have been given a boost after councillors approved plans to extend delivery times to the site.

A planning committee said deliveries to the proposed supermarket could be made between 5am and midnight every day of the week.

But there is still uncertainty over the entire scheme after Sainsbury’s earlier revealed falling sales and the mothballing of dozens of major new developments.

Sainsbury’s were given approval to take over the site and build a major supermarket in June 2013, but a legal challenge by opponents of the scheme forced the plans to be delayed.

The initial application allowed for deliveries between 6am and 11pm from Monday to Saturday, and 9am to 8pm on Sundays and bank holidays.

Rumours that Sainsbury’s were planning on pulling out of the deal to build the supermarket gained credence over the summer when the club issued a writ against Sainsbury’s for what it claimed to be breaches of contract over the planned redevelopment.

Rovers claimed they were out of pocket to the tune of nearly £340,000 as a result of legal fees and soaring building costs, due to Sainsbury’s allegedly dragging its feet over the scheme.

The extension of the opening hours was seen as an attempt to persuade Sainsbury’s to follow through with the deal to build the largest supermarket in north Bristol.

Despite concerns over increased noise pollution by the extended hours, seven councillors to two voted in favour of the plans at a meeting in the council chamber at City Hall.

Conservative committee chair councillor Peter Abraham said the extended hours did not mean there would be extra numbers of vehicles.

“Our duty as councillors is to ensure that any extra noise is mitigated and this proposal does just that,” he said.

He was supported by Labour group leader councillor Helen Holland who added: “It is not unusual for major applications to see alterations as they develop. There is better mitigation against noise now than had the original application gone through.”

Earlier, residents for and against the plans had spoken to the meeting. One resident, Nicholas Russell, said he and his family had bought their house near to the stadium three years ago fully aware of the supermarket application, but had “no problem whatsoever” with what was being proposed.

There were also passionate arguments against, with Labour councillor Olly Mead saying the precedent of extending delivery hours would mean it was “highly probable” others will ask for an extension.

“How can Sainsbury’s not cope with the existing 17 hours of deliveries available? This will set a bad precedent if we as councillors representing residents are overruled for the benefit of big business,” he said.

On the committee, fellow Labour councillor Fabian Breckels said the existing hours were “more than generous” and that work to build the new supermarket should start on that basis.

Earlier though, Sainsbury’s reported a half-year loss before tax of £290m and said that like-for-like sales had fallen 2.1 per cent during the period.

A change in shopping habits was affecting supermarket sales, Sainsbury’s added.

People were shopping more frequently and using online, convenience and discount retailers more, it said.

“We are acknowledging we are not going to build out as many large supermarkets as we were anticipating, so that results in the fact that the land becomes less valuable,” chief executive Mike Coupe said.