Contractor chosen for major scheme

Pleased its going ahead but i'm worried about the calibre of shops that will be opened as we don,t need any more cafes,takeaways,hairdressers,barber shops,tattoo parlours,beauty salons,nail bars & mini marts

Aldi are the big food retailer fair enough.....but who else is going to take up the rest of the shops,we keep hearing about well known high street retailers coming to bedlington but cant for the life of me think who would come here.Knowing our luck the big names will be a Costa Coffee & Clinton's cards instead of butchers bakers & candlestick maker (yeh i know)  

We've lived here since early 90s

https://www.bedlington.co.uk/forums/topic/6015-closed-shops/?tab=comments#comment-60802

Sadly out of town/internet shopping has cause the decline and it will be very hard to get back,but we don't want /need anymore shops I've mentioned above.Iceland would be good,Wilkinson's would be good but that still leaves an awful lot of small shops to fill.....If only the council had pulled its finger out and approved the Tesco redevelopment when it had the chance rather than fanny on for years

Was discussing this in pub over the weekend and most of us came to the conclusion this development is going to be a failure.......main thing we all agreed on was who on earth is going to take on all the small units

If Tesco had been allowed to knock down the old presto and coop and build new supermarket there would have been a few small units at the front as oppose to this new development which has loads of small shops.And bearing in mind we don't need any more of the shops i mentioned in previous post we really struggled to think of any new uses for those small shops

So no doubt the council will be back slapping & congratulating themselves this is doomed to failure and will result in more empty shops in Bedlington

Edited October 28, 20187 yr by rosco

Oh, I don't know. There's always room for another half-dozen takeaways! 🍔🍟

Rosco,

Not quite right..........the council didn't stop Tesco......Tesco pulled out of 40 odd new developments, one of which was ours. 

The way this development has been set up means only the units which have agreed tenants will be built, thats one of the reasons its taken so long!    

Oh and they are medium sized retailers not small ones which I think is a missed opportunity and one I'm trying to remedy.  

The previous plan was to have 6 small starter units on the front with offices above which was to be let to Wansbeck Life who would then rent them out.  I believe thats why on one can find the supposed million quid Tesco was supposed to pay for the site.  I think it was a deal where WL got the shops on a peppercorn agreement for 25 years and made the money renting them out.   Pity no one thought to write a codicil where if Tesco didn't develop we got our town centre back!!!!!   Instead we had to buy it back off Tesco  who I think got it for nowt!!!!   

 The way i understood it was some numpty decided the old buildings were worthy of some sort of listing even though one of them had a horrible 60s facade covering the original building.Tesco were quoted stupid amounts to knock down/expand into the Coop building which would have resulted in a shop which still would have needed two entrances to accommodate the rear car park.

If they hadn't been blocked from knocking down the entire site when the wanted a new shop would have been on the site when they announced 40 shops were closing.The Bedlington shop was was hitting its targets and more but was put on the closure list because the entire building was literally falling down (major leaks in roofs and damp issue in upper floors) and would cost a fortune to repair/bodge

"The way this development has been set up means only the units which have agreed tenants will be built, thats one of the reasons its taken so long"......well its going to take an awful long time to build then

Edited October 29, 20187 yr by rosco

Tesco wasn't blocked????????  The only quotes they had were off their own builders and no one else saw them.  

It looked to be a national strategic decision by Tesco to stop all new builds and try and refocus what they already had because their share price had bombed out.  

The whole of Front Street is a conservation area........they way thats been handled of late doesn't warrant the paper its written down on!  There are no listed buildings.  

The build has started........?  

3 hours ago, Malcolm Robinson said:

Tesco wasn't blocked????????  The only quotes they had were off their own builders and no one else saw them.  

It looked to be a national strategic decision by Tesco to stop all new builds and try and refocus what they already had because their share price had bombed out.  

The whole of Front Street is a conservation area........they way thats been handled of late doesn't warrant the paper its written down on!  There are no listed buildings.  

 

The build has started........?  

Sorry to be picky here but Tesco would have had a new store built long before they announced closures if they had got plans approved

Sorry can't answer for the last administration but I remember them presenting to the Town Council and there were no plans turned down.  In fact they were going to build a temporary store in the car park first to keep trading.