Sale Moor traders celebrate planning victory (From Messenger Newspapers)

Trafford planning development control committee refuses retail schemes for Sale Moor

8:00am Thursday 18th October 2012 in News By Chris Griffin

SALE Moor traders and residents are celebrating after planning chiefs gave the thumbs-down to a supermarket scheme for the village.

The planning committee rejected applications for retail use for a restaurant and three upstairs flats on Northenden Road.

There are also two vacant ground floor shop in the block. It is believed the shops and flats would have been converted into one large store.

Trader Stan Shelton said after Trafford's planning committee had turned down the application at its meeting on October 11: "This is brilliant news."

The planning department received 92 letters of objection to the scheme. The objectors said it would hit trade at the other shops in the centre, and would have a major impact on road safety, traffic congestion and parking.

The property consultants working on the scheme for landlord Alan Dobkin, GL Hearn, claimed it would benefit the village, while there were six letters of support.

But planning committee member, Cllr Phil Gratrix, backed the opponents. He told the planning committee meeting that such a scheme would have "been a catastrophe for Sale Moor."

He said: "This would have been too big and in the wrong place."

He pointed out it was widely believed that Tesco was behind the application, but Tesco has always denied this. Messenger reported last month that Tesco is planning to open a store half a mile away on the site of the former Piper pub, on Norris Road, Sale Moor.

Three separate planning applications were submitted for the shops and flats on Northenden Road, Sale Moor.

A council planning report said that, while on the face of it, the application related to three separate units, it is clear "that their intention ... was to create a large single unit."

The planning committee unanimously rejected the three applications, on the grounds that they failed an assessment known as the 'sequential test' - meaning there is a more appropriate, vacant property available for such a development in the area.

The applicant claimed there were no preferable vacant sites in the area, but the council identified a vacant unit at 11 Marsland Road.

Mr Shelton, of Pick and Pay, on Northenden Road, said of the decision: "This is extremely important for Sale Moor.

"It is a big relief it has been turned down."

Planning permission was recently granted for the restaurant in the Northenden Road block, the Midland Balti, to expand into the shop next door.