At this weeks pre-determination hearing, as reported in this weeks East Lothian Courier, The HBA’s Chairman informed the Planning Committee that without a payment towards the town centre the HBA would not support any out of town development. 

In November 2010, ELC Cabinet decided there was a retail shortfall in the town of 3,700 sq.ms. following an independent report (paid for by ELC, Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s).  At this stage HBA strongly contested any out of town development due to the detrimental effect it would have on the town centre.  Following this decision, the HBA began to look at other “like” towns to see what had happened after a second supermarket was added into the equation.  The stories were not all good ones but what became clear were the planning gain payments that each authority had managed to secure for their town.  Upon further investigation, the HBA discovered payments being made towards Development Trusts and High Street improvements.  It was at this stage the HBA decided that if it was inevitable that an out of town supermarket was coming to Haddington, then they needed to become pro-active and try and secure funds to give Haddington town centre a way of coping with this change. 

They therefore began looking at planning mechanisms to make this happen and where the money could be spent.  A number of shops in the town centre are in need of major repairs and improvements, as most of these businesses are in repair and renewal leases, most of the landlords will not take responsibility or even look at grant funding currently available,  the onus for this has fallen on the business.  Also, there have been many successful Development Trusts set up in towns across Britain from planning gain payments.  These trusts have a Board of Governors, a Management Committee and in most cases a paid worker.  These trusts look at many things including; events for the town, financial assistance for community groups, young enterprise events, art exhibitions and in some cases it had become a “Community Hub” for groups and individuals.  Basically each trust is different, it depends what your town needs are. 

A figure of £500k was estimated from payments that have already been made in “like” towns where one supermarket already existed (Haddington remains unique because of the Tesco car park, the low percentage of vacant properties and the number of independent businesses in the town).  The bulk of the £500k is for the Development Trust and the part-time Haddington Development officer, and the balance is to be put with current grant funding to try and up-grade some of the retail units in the town centre. 

Following lengthy discussions, and despite the recent Haddington Health Check, Sainsbury (who have an option on the ELC preferred site) do not feel they have to make any payment to the town centre as they have complied with everything ELC have asked them to do regarding the size of the store and the 15% non-food area.  ELC also feel that no S75 is applicable here as their independent report from Roderick MacLean (updated 2009) stated there would not be a substantial loss to the town centre.  So here we are – stalemate!

Surely given the fact that no-one could predict how the econmic downturn would effect Britain and given the fact that businesses in Haddington are already under acute pressure, ELC must go back and re-visit this.  Firstly, is this really the time to grant an out of town application, and secondly, what loss could there now be to the town centre.  They need to mitigate the loss to the town centre. 

Time is running out, the decision on this will be taken on the 28th of February.  We hope you make the right decision for Haddington.