PLANS for a new Aldi supermarket near Sheffield's Crystal Peaks shopping centre have been blocked amid fears it could jeopardise another proposed development.
The budget supermarket chain applied to build a store next to Damon's restaurant on Sevenairs Road, opposite Crystal Peaks but councillors voted it out after hearing a range of objections.
An officers' report said priority should be given to a pro
posed retail site at Waterthorpe, on the other side of the shopping centre, where shoppers would not have to cross a main road and would be closer to bus and tram stops.
But Aldi's property director, Mark Taylor, told councillors the proposed store would increase choice and value for residents and create between 20 and 30 jobs, as well as construction work.
He said: "We are committed to developing this location, which is a brownfield site, whereas there is no timescale for Waterthorpe, which is on a greenfield site."
Resident Jacqueline Baker said: "We have needed a store here for many years now."
But other neighbours complained the development would add to problems of traffic, parking and anti-social behaviour.
Ward councillor Helen Mirfin-Boukouris and Attercliffe MP Clive Betts also made the case for refusal, to applause from a packed Town Hall.
Residents' representative Roger Pateman questioned why the Waterthorpe site was being taken into consideration, as it has not yet received planning approval and residents have not been properly consulted.
Councillors on the city centre, south and east planning board voted against the scheme because more appropriate sites were available.
Later Clive Betts said: "I'm delighted. This was the wrong site, and the planning board recognised that the parking proposals were totally inadequate and that the additional traffic that would be generated would simply add to the local congestion."
- The board approved plans for a convenience store on the site of the old Hatfield's car showroom off Abbeydale Road South - despite residents' objections that traffic problems would be made worse by delivery lorries.
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