ONE final hurdle needs to be overcome to allow work on a new Sainsbury’s supermarket in Portishead to begin.
On Thursday, members of North Somerset Council’s north area planning committee gave their final approval to proposals for land off Serbert Way where a 3,000sq ft store could be built.
The latest meeting was held to discuss a financial package worth almost �500,000 due to be handed over by Sainsbury’s to help pay for improvements to Portishead’s town centre and ensure the supermarket minimises any negative effect it could have on nearby High Street shops.
Despite this being approved, the final decision on whether to allow the development to go ahead now lies in the hands of the Government’s Communities and Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, due to the fact the store is only 160m from the town centre and, combined with the neighbouring Homebase premises, would total more than 5,000sqm in size, which is against the council’s own development plan for the district.
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