Narrow defeat for Tesco Express plan (From Malvern Gazette)

Narrow defeat for Tesco Express plan

10:00am Saturday 24th July 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(5)

A PLAN that would have seen the building of a Tesco Express convenience store in Pickersleigh Road, Malvern, was narrowly defeated this week.

Developer Hinton Properties Ltd made the application to demolish the Gas Tavern pub on the corner of Madresfield Road and replace it with the shop and three houses.

The developer contended that the pub, currently vacant, was unviable and several recent managers have failed to make a go of it.

At Wednesday's meeting of Malvern Hills District Council's southern area development control committee, ward members Sheila Young and Val Myatt proposed and seconded that the development be allowed.

But Coun Roger Hall-Jones said that the loss of the pub, a community facility, should be opposed. He said: "It's one of the few facilities left in the area with a catchment area of 3-4,000, which is larger that Upton, and Upton supports ten pubs."

Coun John Waring agreed, citing the example of the Morgan as how a formerly unsuccessful pub can be brought back to life.

The initial proposal to approve the plan was defeated and a proposal by Coun Hall-Jones for refusal was approved, after committee chairman Serena Croad used her casting vote.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(5)