Public delighted after Sainsbury's given go-ahead for Montrose store
Montrose people have been celebrating after hearing a supermarket will be built on the former distillery site.
Members of the group who lobbied for the Montrose Sainsbury's celebrate their success.
- By Marjory Inglis
- Published in the Courier : 01.09.11
- Published online : 01.09.11 @ 11.20am
Local people have given overwhelming support to Sainsbury's bid to develop the company's first store in Angus at Montrose.
Around 30 townsfolk travelled to Forfar earlier this week for a crunch meeting of Angus Council's development standards committee when the Sainsbury's application was decided.
The party was on tenterhooks ahead of the result because planning officials had recommended the £10 million development be refused on the grounds there was insufficient parking on the site.
But, with the clear backing of the community for the new store, councillors succumbed to people power and went against the recommendation and approved the planning application.
The store, expected to open in a year, will have 190 parking spaces at the Brechin Road site.
With Montrosians keen to break the monopoly of Tesco in the town and bring in some competition along with around 200 jobs at the new store, there was jubilation at the decision.
Chris Banks, proprietor at Highland Scene on the High Street and chairman of Montrose Business and Retailers Association, spoke in support of the development at Tuesday's council meeting.
He said: "Everybody is delighted it is going ahead."
'Fantastic effort'
He added: "I really do think it will be good for the town to have increased competition and quality.
"Tesco could do with a bit of competition."
Councillor Mark Salmond led the revolt at the development standards committee by asking councillors to approve the new store and reject the planning officers' recommendation for refusal.
On Thursday he too was delighted the store had been given the go-ahead.
He gave credit to the community for working to bring Sainsbury's to Montrose.
He said: "There was a fantastic effort from team Montrose. We all worked together to achieve a goal and reached our goal of bringing supermarket investment to the town.
"This is a great example of what local communities working together can achieve."
He added: "When I sat down (at the committee) I didn't know which way it would go.
"The excellent presentations and strong arguments from local people helped councillors deviate from the recommendation."
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