A new £40million retail park will be built ten minutes away from Cranbrook.
A new £40million retail park will be built ten minutes away from Cranbrook.
Exeter City Council (ECC) has given the go-ahead for the scheme which includes a Next, M&S Simply Food, Boots, a drive-through McDonalds and a drive-through Costa as tenants.
The further eight units, at the site north of Honiton Road near Millar and Carter, would be filled with a yet-to-be-named discount food retailer, a post office, a newsagent, a bank, a gym, a restaurant, a hot food takeaway unit and a shop.
With Cranbrook lacking a town centre, this means residents will only have to drive four miles to reach the retail and leisure hub on the land north of Honiton Road and to the west of Fitzroy Road, next to the Premier Inn. The plans have been rejected three time but, following officers' recommendations, it was given the green light by ECC's planning committee approve at a meeting on Monday, January 6.
The scheme was only an outline application, which means that a separate application covering elements of design, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale, will need to be submitted and approved by council planners before work can begin.
Up to 450 jobs for local people could be created and if a further reserved matters application is approved building works could commence towards the end of 2020.
Martin Ridgway, group managing director of developers CPG, said that the sustainability benefits of the plans would be huge and that the Moor Exchange, located off Honiton Road, is deliverable and the favoured location to address the shopping requirements for East Exeter.
He told Monday night's meeting: "We have listened to officers and amended the scheme. The floor area has been reduced and the range of uses offered improved.
"The scheme could meet the needs of the existing and growing number of residents along with the wider business community allowing many thousands of people to walk to the site each day to do their daily shopping. Currently, local facilities are very limited.
"Without local provision, employees and residents, including the nearly, 3,500 staff at the Met Office and Devon and Cornwall Police, are forced into their cars at lunchtime or after work to seek ad hoc shopping provision further afield.
"We have worked closely with officers to strengthen the sustainable credentials of the scheme. There are a host of transport related benefits and all-in-all we are setting ourselves strong targets on being a local and very sustainable hub. There is a need for the hub and this is the preferred location.
"To be a success, you cannot just build a retail park. We want it to be sustainable and to be sustainable it has to deliver the day to day services that people actually want.
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