Millom needs a new superstore - MP's view
Last updated at 16:00, Tuesday, 10 March 2009
COPELAND MP Jamie Reed is backing plans for a supermarket on the site of Millom Palladium.
Mr Reed aired his view after retail giants Netto and Lidl both expressed interest in buying the land.
Mr Reed believes turning the site into a supermarket would boost Millom’s economy.
“We need to look towards the future of the town and regenerate to make sure businesses come to the area,” said Mr Reed.
“I agree that the site of the Palladium has to be developed in some way.
“It is imperative it gets regenerated and Millom Town Council and I will do everything to make sure that development is a success.”
The Palladium, on Horn Hill, is currently in a state of disrepair.
It was handed back to its original owners, Millom Amateur Operatic Society, by Millom and Haverigg Economic Development Group.
MAOS had been forced to give up the building in 2007.
The society could no longer afford to maintain it.
So it was then transferred to MHEDG, which is in charge of regenerating the town, to be redeveloped.
But the work was never completed.
MP Reed’s spokesman Carl Carter said there could also be an option of building the supermarket next to the Palladium and not physically over it.
MAOS chairman Barry Vernon was unavailable for comment today. But in January he told the Evening Mail the society intended to keep the palladium as a theatre and fight plans for a store.
First published at 11:48, Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
It is time the Millom and Haverigg Economic Development Group came clean about what its intentions are with regard to the School owned by Cumbria County Council and the land on which the former Job Centre stands.
Where is the EDG going to get the money to buy the land up for auction (on the Job Centre site.) Please confirm or refute as fact or fallacy that the EDG has put in a bid for £70,000 for the Job Centre site. If so what business case have you put to prospective funders.What certainty have the EDG got of obtaining Cumbria County Council land (needed to complete the package) required for the supermarket building and car park.Nor can the EDG assume that Cumbria County Council will part with the land, on which the old school stands, for less than the market price. My understanding is that Copeland and Cumbria Council Standing Orders emphatically forbid the sale of land below market price. Is the EDG intending to get the land to sell onto Netto? Are Netto prepared to pay the market price? What is the current vision or purpose? Since the Palladium site is being transferred back to MAOS, the original intention to use the money from the sale to develop an arts centre has been lost. Where is it leading and to what end? Is it justifiable to expect public money to be spent so a supermarket can locate. Surely if it is purely a supermarket moving into the area, they should pay the market cost. It may have been acceptable to acquire the land for them, if there had been any planning gain or regeneration purpose (funding to regenerate the Palladium or create an Arts Centre.) It seems that the EDG has lost the plot. Further opinions and clarification of facts would be appreciated. It is time the EDG became accountable to the public, since it involves publicly owned land and funding bodies.View all 11 comments on this article
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What? Really? What I want to know is exactly what in the hell happened to all that money the EDG were given to develop the site? Did they lose it down the back of the sofa? I'm not shouting "corruption" but it's hardly bloody loose change. And more than two supermarkets in a town this size is stretching the demand slightly isn't it?
Posted by Neil Miller on 13 July 2009 at 05:08