Councillors overturn planners ‘No’ to Tesco in Galston - Co-op jobs are under threat.

Jul 2 2010 by Ian Russell, Kilmarnock Standard

ON THURSDAY there was deep division among councillors on the planning committee, with emotions running high among members – and those in the public gallery.

Irvine Valley councillor Bobby McDill said giving Tesco the green light would ‘wreck the centre of Galston’.

But fellow Valley member Stuart Finlayson was amazed that after years of trying to regenerate Galston, the council’s own planners were now saying ‘No’ to such an important application.

Chairman at the meeting, Councillor Alan Brown, admitted it was ‘a tough decision’, but he backed the application.

But IF the proposal becomes a reality, Tesco has already conceded on several fronts.

The company says the new supermarket would not be open 24 hours; there would be no pharmacy; and deliveries would be limited to certain hours to cut down on noise disturbance.

The new shop would be twice the size of the existing Co-op (and half the size of Kilmarnock’s massive Tesco Extra); would share the same access road off the main A71; and be an eco-store built on stilts.

Tesco representatives told the meeting the plan would create 250 jobs – 40 per cent full-time and 60 per cent part-time.

They claimed it would pump £4.5 million a year into the local economy; would see them pay £1.7 million a year in wages to local staff; and there would be a one-off contribution of £370,000 to be spent on local projects.

There would also be 100 construction jobs.

But Catherine Knapp, a Newmilns resident and ‘a Co-op shopper’, who also works in the Co-op’s Galston store, told the meeting that the arrival of a new Tesco supermarket would decimate not only Galston town centre businesses, but businesses all around the Irvine Valley.

She predicted more empty buildings, chaos on the roads and more danger for pupils travelling to and from Loudoun Academy – just up the hill from the site in question.

She said that it was ‘a ludicrous proposal’, and one which would probably cost her and 50 or 60 other Co-op store workers their jobs.

Planning consultant Katherine Sneeden, for Tesco, told councillors the Co-op store had ‘limited choice and high prices’ and that an independent survey had shown that only 10 per cent of people living locally did their weekly shop in the Irvine Valley. The rest were going to Kilmarnock, Ayr, Silverburn and Irvine.

The Tesco proposal was a great opportunity for Galston, she said, and it would mean more money was being spent locally.

Paul O’Donnell, a director of joint applicants Dawn Developments, claimed the local community didn’t want the status quo – they wanted to see change.

“At the moment Galston is too easy to bypass,” he said, “but building this store will create an anchor to change that.”

And he warned: “This application is an opportunity that won’t come along again.”

Margo Dykes, the chairperson of Galston Community Council, told the pre-determination hearing that they supported the application.

“It will kick-start the regeneration of Galston town centre,” she said.

“We really want the new store on our doorsteps – it is badly needed.”

Although SEPA (the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) objected to the application as the land lies on a floodplain, EAC’s roads service operations manager John McRobert said it was a unique situation. The store would be built on stilts and with various conditions attached his department would support the proposal.

Resident Linda Thomson, whose house in Polwarth Street is the closest residential property to the new store site, said the scheme would result in the destruction of a natural area which had many rare birds and other wildlife. There were also noise and sewerage issues.

Planning chief Alan Neish said the council was spending £4.35million on regenerating the town centre already. He pointed out that there had been no impact analysis on how a new Tesco store would affect the existing Co-op or other businesses in the Irvine Valley.

There was also a petition bearing 485 signatures against the new store plan, plus six individual letters of objection.

A further 24 letters of support had been received but these were outwith the statutory time period for neighbour notification.

One of the objectors asked councillors to look at the effect the arrival of a Tesco store had on the main street in Auchinleck – where there are now few shops and several empty properties.

Councillor Alan Brown said it was a tough decision to make but he moved approval, overturning his planning chief’s recommendation.

He was seconded by Councillor John Campbell.

Said Councillor Stuart Finlayson: “We have heard for years that Galston is going to be a serious service centre for the Irvine Valley.

“Yet here we have our planning department objecting to this proposal.

“If we are serious about having Galston regenerated we should try to support applications like this”

However Councillor Bobby McDill, seconded by Councillor Tom Cook, moved an amendment, backing the planning department’s refusal recommendation.

Said Councillor McDill: “I have serious concerns about the impact this will have on Galston.”

When it went to a vote it was an 8-4 result in favour of giving Tesco the thumbs-up.