Tesco loses planning application

Tesco’s plans for a new foodstore, complete with petrol station, car parking and landscaping as well as an indoor and outdoor market area in Great Homer Street were rebuffed by planning inspectors paving the way for a much larger proposal, the Sainsbury’s-backed Project Jennifer, to go ahead.

It was argued that the larger scheme would provide greater choice and benefits to local people than the Tesco proposal could.

The Project Jennifer scheme includes a 965 space car park, petrol filling station, 80,000 sq ft of non-food retail stores, a market hall and 300 relocated outdoor market stalls, 481 new homes, facilities for the Primary Care Trust, a new library, leisure facilities, 80,000 sq ft of light industrial space and improved public realm.

Michelle Taylor, regional director of development partner St. Modwen, said: “We have always maintained that the application to build a foodstore in isolation would not have brought about the much needed regeneration for one of the most deprived areas in the country.”