By Isle of Wight Observer
Plans for a new retail and leisure complex at St George’s Park, Newport, rumoured to include a McDonald’s drive-through, Aldi and Wickes, have been recommended for conditional approval.
The Isle of Wight Council’s planning committee is due to met next Tuesday (Oct 15) to discuss the application, submitted by South Coast Leisure in November 2018. Planning officers have recommended the development is granted planning permission, with several conditions attached.
They include conditions that the three retail warehouses only sell certain types of products, one with a garden centre cannot sell clothes and shoes, for example, and the others cannot sell food.
Lighting cannot be installed without the council’s written permission and noise restrictions have been placed on the reversing alarms of delivery vehicles.
Newport and Carisbrooke Parish Council, along with Cycle Wight and 14 residents, objected to the proposed development. They raised concerns it would compete with town centre shops, and said there were already too many food stores on the Isle of Wight.
However, the application was supported by the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce, the Newport (IW) Football Supporters’ Society and 12 residents who welcomed the creation of 200 jobs and said a larger commercial development was needed in the town. The complex would include 289 parking spaces.
Previous plans for a 24-hour gym at the site, run by the Gym Group, have been dropped following news another 24-hour gym was set to open at Coppins Bridge.
The football ground, home to Newport FC, is due to be demolished, and the club relocated to a new stadium, sponsored by WightFibre and called WightFibre Park. The new stadium will be built on land off the Racecourse roundabout in Whippingham.
If conditional permission is granted by the planning committee, building work will have to start in the next three years.
Isle of Wight Observer