NOTHING will happen in Newton Abbot in investment and regeneration terms while the Wolborough Street redevelopment site lies idle, Simon Hoare, of Community Connect, told the town council's transportation committee on Wednesday.
The 13 acre site on which it is proposed to build an Asda superstore with 40,000 sq ft retail space was said to be the trigger to set the town off.
Mr Hoare said it was hoped the latest plans, which have seen the reintroduction of the Wolborough Street-Bradley Lane link road and the store moving further towards the town, would go before Teignbridge Council's Development Control Committee early in the new year.
'There could be a start on site in the spring or summer, which would allow us to open the store in Christmas 2005,' he stated.
Mr Hoare said it was estimated 1,400 people attended a three-day exhibition on the scheme, 15 of them waiting at the door for it to open on the Saturday, and there was more than 80 per cent support for it.
'The general tone and tenor of the word coming back was "for goodness sake get on with it", he said, warning that it was not going to be the great solver of the town's problems but could be the catalyst for the town.
The link road would take a great deal of traffic away from the woefully inadequate roundabout in Wolborough Street and a pinch point would be removed in Highweek Street, but it did not remove the pinch point in Totnes Road.
'I would have thought compulsory purchase orders along one side of Totnes Road would be the only thing that could do that. That is not a political option, and that ain't going to happen,' said Mr Hoare.
CCTV was being included in the scheme.
Keith Beynon, chairman of ASM Properties, told the meeting there were 747 car parking spaces in the scheme, which created 220 additional spaces. Some 422 would be in Asda ownership with the other 325 remaining in the district authority's control.
Vehicle message signing would guide motorists to available spaces.
Cllr Anne Fry said they had been told 30,000 people would go through the till checkouts every week, and she believed working on that figure all the car parking spaces would be needed for ASDA.
Replying Mr Hoare said the last thing they wanted to do was to create a ghost town in Newton Abbot as a result of the store coming in and making trading intolerable for existing traders.
'We want the town as lively as we can get it. An out of town superstore does nothing for the town centre. You go there, you do your shopping and you go home. Here we want to encourage people not only to the store but into the town,' he continued.
Cllr Geraldine Gaskell expressed concern about the number of articulated lorries servicing the store and the dangers to the elderly and schoolchildren in the area, but it was pointed out that 12 artics daily would visit the store but in the past 30 lorries daily had gone in and out of Egbeare's haulage yard in Bradley Lane.
There was a call from Cllr Reg Wills for the message to go to Teignbridge Council to support the scheme.
'Apart from the doom and gloom brigade everyone is in favour. I think it will provide a great boost to Newton Abbot's trade,' said Cllr Wills.
ASDA MDA 13.11.03. JB.