Mike Edwards' response to superstore approval story

llanblogger has received the following response from Mike Edwards, chair of Keep Llangollen Special, to our story earlier today about the Sainsbury foodstore/Cilmedw planning applications:

The original application by J Ross claimed there
would be 220 jobs created on the new D&C site, the 109 is what they employ
currently according to what we were told on a site visit.

The report provided to DCC by Roger Tym & Partners is fatally flawed
because:

1. It failed to take into consideration the new supermarket built in Cefn Mawr
by Tesco which is only 5 miles away from Llangollen and readily available to
people who commute to work in Wrexham, Chester or further afield;

2. It also refers to in a report dated June 2012 to Stan's super store having
been granted planning consent when in actual fact it had been trading since
February of this year:

The application for the new supermarket is NOT in accordance with Planning
Policy Wales(PPW) in terms of its affect on the vitality and
vibrancy of the Town Centre and fails the guidance on sustainability because it
will increase vehicle journeys and cause further congestion on the A5 which is
a main arterial tourist route through town.

DCC have been in favour of these applications from the word go and probably
because if they refuse them they are afraid that J Ross/Sainsbury's will use
their financial muscle and appeal the application and employ top planning
barristers to argue their case which a Local Authority are not able to match.
Is that a valid reason to approve the application and ruin Llangollen and turn
it into another Clone Town similar to the hundreds of others around the UK. You
only have to look at what has happened to Wrexham, Oswestry, Ruthin etc with
empty shops everywhere in their main streets.

Mike Edwards