| Although the Scottish Executive will now ultimately decide whether or not Morrisons’ plans for the former Linlathen High School go ahead in principle, the issue of what road improvements would be required could still stop the project becoming a reality.
Morrisons already has an agreement with Dundee City Council to buy the former high school site off Forfar Road from the local authority, subject to the ratification of the council decision to approve the supermarket development. However, the plans for a 90,000 square feet superstore and filling station development — employing about 350 staff — is one of a number of projects scheduled to be the subject of a complex planning inquiry due to begin on March 1.
But Morrisons will not be represented.
In a brief statement issued to the Evening Telegraph today, the company said, “We have yet to reach an amicable agreement on access with the Scottish Executive as highways authority. As a consequence we consider it would be premature to continue with the inquiry.”
The spokesman added the decision to pull out did not mean the company had pulled out completely from the planned project.
The public local inquiry will, over several weeks, consider a number of superstore and other developments proposed for a number of sites.
Apart from the Morrisons plan, proposals by Tesco and Asda for stores on South Road; by a Glasgow-based developer for a supermarket, non-food retail units, houses and other facilities on land adjacent to Camperdown Leisure Park; and by Dundee-based developer Bruce Linton and others for the regeneration of much of the Dunsinane Industrial Estate will all be the focus of a series of “inquiries-within-an-inquiry” which have been organised.
Ironically, as Morrisons decision to put out of inquiry was revealed today, so it also emerged that another key feature of the inquiry, that of roads improvements required for most of the projects to go ahead, will be the subject of developments in advance of the inquiry.
The Scottish Executive confirmed it is to hold a meeting with interested parties in Dundee early next month to discuss the implications of a detailed survey consultants have carried out on behalf of the executive.
The consultants have been working for many months on a major “traffic modelling” exercise.
Their findings will have implications not just for many of the projects, but also for plans for hundreds of new houses at the Western Gateway area of Dundee.
A Scottish Executive spokesperson said today it is to organise a meeting in Dundee on February 7, to which “all relevant stakeholders” were being invited. Those present were expected to include local authorities, enterprise companies, developers, housebuilders and supermarkets. |
