| Historic buildings will be demolished and 15 businesses will be moved to make way for a flagship shopping mall and seven-storey block of flats for Newbury’s Park Way.
Plans to build a shopping mall bigger than the Kennet Centre and a block of flats nearly as tall as the BT tower in Bear Lane have been unveiled by Shearer Properties, and Newbury residents have just two weeks to make their comments known.
The £120m complex is the flagship project of the increasingly controversial Vision for Newbury 2025, and involves demolishing five grade II-listed shops in Northbrook Street, removing medieval buildings at the back of four other shops, and flattening the former South Berkshire brewery malthouse.
It also means that Rymans, Argos, Wilds Sports, Scuba Centre, Clereprint, Flex gym, Nationwide Carpets, The Mart, Charles Hoile, the Valet Centre, Think Ahead hair salon, DWS dental lab, Monarch Microfilm, Nora Employment Agency, Connexions will have to find new premises, as West Berkshire Council is preparing to use compulsory purchase powers to help the deal through.
But most significantly still, the town centre will lose nearly a third of parking spaces for up to two years before the proposed 640-space underground car park is finished. The plans say that existing car parks in the town can cope, but includes some car parks that are to be removed for other Vision projects in the meantime. If the scheme is allowed, the council also faces loss of revenue, as the new car park will be run by the developer.
Shearer Properties claims that a summer exhibition prompted 600 responses from the public, with 74% supporting the plans. Just 6% of those consulted were against the development.
The scheme is two thirds shopspace and a third flats, and will create more than 1000 jobs for the town. The largest building will be a three-storey department store – Debenhams have been linked – including a furniture store.
Shopping visits to Newbury have increased by 8.5% in 2005, but nearly half of us go to Reading for Christmas shopping, and the council wants more big name retailers to keep the money in town.
Developers are hoping for planning approval by March 2006, and to be on site by early 2007. The project is due to finish in 2009, and will take a 100-strong team of workmen to build.
Newbury.net readers can submit comments online by clicking here. (see URL below).
http://ww2.westberks.gov.uk/publicaccess/dc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=IRUFWFRDV1000&searchtype=WEEKLY | 
