Planners clamp down on new retail park shops

COUNCIL planners are to impose strict conditions on a new out-of-town store in Rotherham - in a bid to protect the town's traders.

Developers were given preliminary permission for the new retail development on a former industrial site in Rotherham Road, Parkgate, a year ago.

Rotherham Council backed the development but dealt a blow to the nearby existing Parkgate Shopping Centre by refusing its plans to expand.

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The council said it preferred the Rotherham Road scheme because it was located on a main bus route and said the other scheme would add to existing traffic problems in the area.

Now planners are insisting the new retail complex only sells a limited range of ‘non food’ goods in order to protect Rotherham town centre, a mile up the road.

“It is important that any condition is sufficiently comprehensive to restrict the type of goods that could potentially harm the vitality and viability of the town centre,” says a report by planners.

The developers will also have to pay 75 per cent of the cost of moving existing bus stops, and create an employment strategy which will favour local people.

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Stadium City, the owners of the Parkgate Shopping Centre, wanted to build a new access road to the complex but planners refused.

They want to reduce traffic levels in Parkgate - a notorious bottleneck - and are urging shoppers to travel there by bus.