'We told Asda that their supermarket proposal as it stood did not meet the standards and needs of the town and did not have a satisfactory transport interchange. Asda eventually decided they could not meet the local requirements and did not proceed with their proposals.'
Once again my memory must be playing tricks. I will set out events as I remember them, with transparent willingness to retract should I be proven incorrect.
Asda's initial attempt to build a superstore by the estuary was seen off with great fanfare with our MP presenting an 11,000 signature petition to Downing Street. Almost immediately EDDC was held up to ridicule in Private Eye magazine for trying to counter the etition with a 'survey' of schoolchildren.
A couple of years down the line back comes the Asda proposal, except that it is dressed up as one of a series of proposals from four different supermarket developers for one each of four different sites. Asda's was the preferred bidder and was given the go ahead, despite the fact that it involved unnecessary disruption and relocation of our transport and leisure facities.
People asked why fours groups on different sites? Why no level playing field? No satisfactory answer was given at the time, though I've recently been advised that Stagecoach had sold Asda the option on their bus station site. Presumably an alternative could have been built on another part of the larger footprint? Was this deal being allowed to take precedence over other regeneration ideas for the town? I believe Stagecoach sponsored the festival that year, a coincidence of course.
Then it transpired that these meetings were subject to 'commercial confidentiality, and had not been minuted. When people asked why this was, we were told that they were held under a particular set of rules whereby minuting was not required. Then a retired civil servant wrote to the Journal, pointing out that these rules were not appropriate for these meetings. To their abiding shame The Journal didn't pursue this, and as ever we were left not to find out.
As the recent financial crisis reared it's head, Asda tried to reduce it's planning gain commitments below what was previously agreed, and remarkably the council held firm. So Asda walked away.
Every now and then The Journal tells us a number of supermarkets are interested in coming to the town, and Asda is always listed, although an Asda source has told me emphatically that they are no longer keen. I wonder if they still hold the option?
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