Sainsbury's to expand after sweetener offer (From Stroud News and Journal)

Sainsbury's to expand after sweetener offer

SUPERMARKET giant Sainsbury's has been given the green light to expand after offering a 20,000 sweetener towards the cost of employing Stroud's town centre manager.

But the offer has been described as 'blood money' by Green cllr and town mayor, John Marjoram .

"It's going to destroy the town centre," he said yesterday after Stroud District Council's development control sub-committee resolved not to refuse the expansion.

And he was uninpressed by the one-off payment.

"Let's face it, 20,000 is nothing, lets be honest about it," he said.

The scheme will see the Dudbridge store swallow up some 28 car parking spaces and increase its retail floorspace by almost one third, from 2,225sq metres up to 2,875sq metres.

Planning officers had expressed concern that the store might impact on town centre shops if it followed the national trend of branching out in the range of goods on offer.

Their fear was the supermarket might provide another outlet for televisions, white goods and adults' clothes, drawing shoppers away from Stroud town centre.

But the supermarket giant gave assurances that no more than the equivalent of ten per cent of the current floorspace, or 225sq metres, would be given over to non-convenience products.