M&S set for bigger Blackburn store - but new market scaled down (From Lancashire Telegraph)

M&S set for bigger Blackburn store - but new market scaled down

9:00am Thursday 15th October 2009 in Blackburn Exclusive By Tom Moseley, Reporter

WORK IN PROGRESS: The new development

MARKS and Spencer is poised to move into a flagship store over three storeys of Blackburn’s new shopping centre — but at the cost of a scaled-down market.

The Lancashire Telegraph understands the retail giant is set to leave its current base in King William Street for a larger, 50,000 sq ft store with an entrance in Church Street.

If agreed, the move would further delay completion of the £66million centre, pushing the opening date back from next summer into the spring of 2011, because part of it will have to redesigned.

Jack Straw has expressed his delight at the news, but market leaders have accused council bosses of ‘hanging the market out to dry’.

Blackburn with Darwen Council, which has a 12 per cent stake in the centre, will contribute £6million of taxpayers’ money to the scheme, hoping the draw of a major store will increase rents and repay the investment.

Council bosses have declined to officially confirm the identity of the new arrival, but it is understood Marks and Spencer wants to open a three-storey building, comparable to its Bolton store, taking the former Woolworth’s building, with a ground-floor food court.

This means the size of the proposed market - which will replace the current centre in Ainsworth Street - will be cut by at least a third.

In return, traders are expected to be offered an alternative, outdoor three-day market, possibly in Church Street or Ainsworth Street.

But market leaders have poured cold water on the plans.

It is the third major town-centre development this week following news that Sainsbury’s was interested in moving to the market site, and that funding had been secured to get the long-awaited Cathedral Quarter project off the ground.

Mr Straw said: “I am delighted with the progress made so far.

"But it will not be all over until it’s completely nailed down.”

Jeweller Phil Ainsworth, of the town centre marketing committee, said: “This is huge news all round.

“A major store going into the centre like that would mean a huge boost for the town. But the delays are very much a worry.

“It will mean it’s been three Christmases as a building site in that area and I would expect the council and the Mall to speed things up if at all possible.”

On the scaled-down market, Mr Ainsworth said: “Blackburn is a market town, and these plans were supposed to rejuvenate the market, so if it was downsized it would be a shame.”

But council bosses hope that the presence of a big name next to the stalls would make the market ‘irresistible’ to traders.

Council leader Mike Lee said: “It is an exciting development for the town and will help the viability of the market, which will be next to it.

“The market will be the newest in Lancashire and the most up-to-date”.

Council bosses wrote to traders yesterday outlining the plans. In the letter, regeneration director Adam Scott said the plans, which will be finalised at the end of the year, would give the town “an enormous boost”.

The ‘basic arrangements’ for the new market would be unchanged, with an escalator up to the first floor, and doors onto Church Street and Ainsworth Street.

In a recent poll, most traders told the Lancashire Telegraph they did not want to move to the new, ‘high-quality food-based’ market the council hopes to set up.

The current market in Penny Street has 84 stallholders, with many filling several stall plots.

The new market was originally intended to be a third of the size of the current market but providing space for 120 stalls.

Now the size of the market will be reduced again by a third.

Market traders’ chairman Chris Appleby said: “It will be the end of the market we know, and the one we believe the public want.

“Time will tell whether people want a larger Marks and Spencer or a vibrant market. I know from my stall that the public want bargain shopping from their market. And in 12 months’ time, Blackburn will not have become a shopping utopia.

“People will still be demanding bargains but we can’t offer them if we’re paying 50 per cent more rent.”

Labour leader Kate Hollern said she had been ‘kept in the dark’ about the plans, and slammed the treatment of the market traders and the ‘lack of consultation’ with the public.

She added: “It is good news, but I am concerned we are retreating under one roof. What happens to Church Street and Darwen Street? ”

Marks and Spencer and the Mall did not respond to requests for a comment.

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