Sainbury’s Proposals For Frindsbury

We write to you in your capacity as Chairman of Upnor Residents Association regarding proposals to develop a new Sainsbury’s store in Frindsbury on land off Anthony’s Way on Medway City Estate.

The new store would significantly enhance shopping choice for local residents and would deliver major highways improvements and a Park & Ride facility, the latter of which forms a key part of the Council’s transport strategy and is allocated for this site in the Local Plan.

As you may be aware, the site, known as Plot 1 Medway City Estate, currently has planning permission for a retail development of over 120,000 sq ft for the sale of non-food goods. However, there is no longer an identified occupier for the non-food retail unit and the only way to bring the site forward for development in the foreseeable future is through an alternative use.

The Park & Ride facility was previously granted planning permission alongside the non-food retail unit. However, the only way that has now been identified to deliver this through private investment is in conjunction with the newly proposed food retail scheme.

The new Sainsbury’s store, which would be approximately 64,500 sq ft sales (about the same size as the Hempstead Valley store), would be a major boost to the local economy, representing a multi-million pound investment and generating up to 500 new full and part-time jobs in a variety of roles. Notwithstanding this, Sainsbury’s remains committed to the existing store in Chatham town centre which would be unaffected by these proposals.

A number of improvements are proposed to be made to the local highway network as part of Sainsbury’s proposals including the provision of traffic light management on the Anthony’s Way / Vanguard Way and Sanspareil roundabouts. This would significantly improve the operation of these junctions and thereby reduce queues, congestion and delays in and around the Medway City Estate area.

The Park & Ride facility is allocated in the Medway Local Plan for this site as it would intercept traffic travelling to Chatham from Frindsbury, Wainscott, Grain and the Hoo Peninsula, as well as from the proposed Lodge Hill new settlement at Chattenden. As you may well be aware, the facility could also form a strategic hub in a new bus priority scheme for the Medway Towns being considered by Medway Council.

We appreciate there will be a number of issues that need to be addressed with a development scheme of this nature. Our proposals would therefore only be finalised following public consultation in order that the views of the local community can be understood and taken into account.

We will therefore shortly be launching a dedicated website on the proposals at www.sainsburys-frindsbury.co.uk, which will provide further information on how the scheme could take place. Local people will also be able to give their feedback on the initial plans that will be shown online through an interactive comments form. It is anticipated that the website will be live by Friday 27 November 2009.

We are also proposing to hold a public exhibition of the proposals on the following dates:

• Saturday 5 December - Wainscott Primary School, Wainscott Road, 10am - 4pm
• Wednesday 9 December - Strood Methodist Church Hall, Cliffe Road, 2pm - 8pm
• Saturday 12 December - Strood Methodist Church Hall, Cliffe Road, 10am - 4pm