Is Northumberland County Council's levelling up team inviting Tesco to develop a new store in Blyth Town Centre?

 

The retail giant Tesco is widely advertising their growth plans and are seeking sites across England to house new large trading centres and Tesco express branches.

The Council is managing a huge levelling up program for Blyth Town centre to increase footfall in the Town appears to be solely focused on a Community Centre project to spend almost £9m of the £23m of awarded government funds on. 

Unlike other Towns in the County the Conservative led County Council missed the opportunity to develop a new leisure centre in the Town Centre as in towns like Cramlington, Ashington, Hexham, Ponteland, Berwick and Morpeth which history has shown drives a high level of footfall in the areas where they are sited, helping business and the night time economy into the bargain. Blyth's 60yr old centre is tucked away behind some allotments and nowhere near a retail outlet.

With the prime opportunity missed, a secondary chance may be sitting on the horizon in the shape of both former MP’ Ronnie Campbell's Covered in Market Place, offering free or low cost businesses and start up’s the chance to trade or Tesco's growth scheme or even both. Large Tesco stores are a major attraction and the retail experience of multi mode and high variety shopping is well enjoyed by many even in areas with lower than average incomes, with Tesco's budget ranges are classed as top class.

Reshaping the Town centre around another large supermarket would achieve the ideals of the levelling up agenda, increasing employment and drawing in many more multi outlet shoppers into the Town Centre which would still support Morrisons, as in other centres with two large outlets competition does not damage each others trade but rather brings in greater numbers of shoppers onto the High Street.

The Community Centre model will simply run down the Town Centre further with current community, arts, theatre and cinema attractions being forced out as the slippage of Arts Council funding is passed by the Authority into its own centre and the competitive nature of a large room hire building bankrolled by a Council damaging other premises business models such as clubs and pubs who will lose a good deal of trade to the organisation their business rates bankroll. It's a vicious circle that Northumberland Conservatives will run to suit their indoctrination needs and not serve the wants of local people.

Levelling down using your cash to do it with:- Northumberland Conservatives.