News: Plans set to be approved for Rotherham town centre Tesco

Plans for the new £40m Tesco Extra in Rotherham town centre are to be decided upon this week with members of the planning board being recommend to approve the application.

The 10,000 sq m development on the site of council buildings at Walker Place will replace the current outdated store on Forge Island. Anglo-Dutch developer, TCN is purchasing the council's 22,000 sq m Civic Site and submitted initial plans at the end of last year. Updated plans were submitted in April following detailed discussions with Rotherham Council and local businesses.

The proposals are for a Tesco store with a total sales area of 6,273 sq m on the site of the Civic Building, Central Library and Norfolk House, plus a petrol filling station on the site of Crinoline House. It will create an additional 3,362 sq m of floorspace from the current store which is split into 1,301 sq m of convenience and 2,061 sq m of comparison goods.

As part of the development, a multi-million pound investment would be made in the road network, including removing the Centenary Way flyover. The mitigation measures mean that planners consider that the new store will have little adverse impact on the local highway network.

The creation of a shared surface on Drummond Street is proposed to improve the pedestrian link and new public realm areas are also included and improvements to Effingham Square will see it resurfaced, and the area made more pedestrian friendly.

The building is proposed to be a modern and contemporary style with timber cladding and curtain wall glazing on the elevation to the town centre. A "green wall" with vertical climbing plants is proposed at the back of the store facing Nottingham Street and St Ann's.

600 car parking spaces are proposed within the application site including undercroft parking beneath the store. It is proposed that the car park can be used free of charge for up to two hours.


The planner's report includes detailed reasons on why the application should be approved covering the impact on the town centre and out of town retail, scale, usage, design, noise and transport issues.

It is considered that the benefit of an anchor store such as the proposed Tesco development would assist in clawing back expenditure to the town centre and outweighs the potential detrimental affect on town centre traders.

Regarding the impact the planner's report concludes that the development: "would facilitate an improved quality of shopping environment and experience for customers visiting the town centre area, and also enable Forge Island to be redeveloped.

"The application site is adjacent to the town centre core retail area of the town centre, the indoor market and the transport interchange. It is noted that the relocation of the store may have an impact on footfall at the western site of the town centre, however in determining this planning application this does not outweigh the benefits that the proposal would have for the vitality and viability of the town centre as a whole."

Any planning permission will include a number of conditions covering aspects such as restricting the sales areas, creating travel plans for staff, approving the use of building materials and diverting the sewers.

The development will also be restricted in terms of the concessions that can be included alongside the Tesco store. It is set to include a pharmacy, photo processing lab and mobile phone shop, but not an opticians, doctors, dry cleaning facility or post office.

The development would create 450 jobs (200 full time and 250 part time). 200 of these are additional to the current store and all staff at the current store would be guaranteed a job at the new site.

If approved, the planning board will need to refer the plans to the government's National Planning Casework Unit who handle major planning applications on behalf of the Secretary of State. If they decide not to intervene, planning permission will be granted, subject to the conditions.

The store is expected to be open and trading in 2013. Vacant possession of the site will not be possible until Spring 2012 and it will take around one year to build the proposed scheme.

TCN website

Images: TCN / Smith Smalley