Hayle Supermarket Wars and ASDA on South Quay.

How ASDA ended up on South Quay, Hayle.

As Mayor, and a Hayle Town Councillor for the last seven years, and active on Social Media I am becoming aware that many people did not follow the developments of the "Supermarket Battles" or the recent history of South Quay and Hayle Harbour, and don't understand how an ASDA ended up being built on SouthQuay, Hayle.

I recently posted an explanation on Facebook which has received some praise, so I will re-post it here to help people understand.

 The Harbour came into the possession of ING around 2004, and amongst the various plans and proposals, South Quay renovation was starting to look like being the last phase of the overall development.

Suddenly supermarkets took an interest in Hayle, because of its position on the road network and its potential catchment area. Morrisons wanted the Jewson’s site at Carnsew, Sainsbury wanted to build on Loggans Moor nature reserve and marsh, and ASDA wanted to build on the Rugby Club. All of these wanted to come to Hayle, but the Penwith Retail study of 2007, (and the later Cornwall Retail Study 2010) which was evidence the planners are obliged to rely on said there WAS scope for an additional supermarket in Hayle, but ONLY ONE.

This made it a “Battle of the supermarkets” but then ING joined in by proposing their South Quay site for a supermarket development, without any supermarket brand being signed up.

ING’s advisors had learned something that the local councillors, and people interested in planning were to discover. Sequential Tests.

These were and are strong parts of government guidelines on planning, and serve to ensure development is in the best, or least harmful sites.

The Retail Sequential Test stated that a supermarket development site closest to an existing shopping centre is the preferred option as it enable footfall to the supermarket to be close to existing shops so they have a chance to compete for the new potential customers. (This put South Quay in the lead.)

The Flooding Sequential Test meant that sites least likely to be flooded or most easily protected against flooding are preferred sites (This effectively knocked Sainsbury out)

The two proposals, ASDA and Sainsbury both on Marsh Lane, also had largely unresolved Traffic and Transport issues with the already overloaded roundabout at Loggans Moor/Carwin.

These were the planning issues and policies that set ING’s South Quay as the Number One preferred site for a supermarket development.

Added to that were the additional “Planning Gains” for the South Quay site of ING having to carry out the highly expensive repairs to South Quay and Carnsew Quay, exposing and excavating Carnsew Dock and the Carnsew Sluice, replacing the sluice gates and repairing the sluice tunnels (“Black Houses”) so a sluicing regime could be restarted, making contributions to road improvements around Hayle, contributing to the new railway station approach, building a bridge from its supermarket to Penpol Terrace shops, and new routes through ISIS Gardens to Foundry, public promenade all around South Quay and public entertainment and recreation areas.
The final benefit was ING’s offer to hand ownership and control of the harbour over to a Hayle body.|

The South Quay supermarket planning application was the clear winner on planning grounds.

Originally ING were negotiating with Sainsbury, but they dropped out when they got the Penzance Heliport site, then ASDA switched from supporting the Rugby Club site and came to South Quay.

Graham.