Developers unveil Ulverston supermarket scheme (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Developers unveil Ulverston supermarket scheme

2:25pm Wednesday 9th January 2013 in News By Daniel Orr, Reporter

How the new development on the old brewery site in Ulverston could look

NEW plans and images of a town centre supermarket for Ulverston have been unveiled this week.

The project – to build a new store on Robinson’s old brewery distribution site in Brewery Street – has moved a step closer to fruition.

Developers say it would create 200 new jobs while also improving car parking in the town centre.

Developers, Robinson’s, who hosted a public exhibition in November, say they have spent ‘many months’ before and since listening to local people’s views.

They have also worked with South Lakeland District Council officers, English Heritage, Cumbria County Council, the Highways Agency and Places Matter, to create a scheme that ‘safeguards the heritage of the site, while delivering economic benefit to the town’.

The store would be linked to the Brewery Street car park and would include improvements to Buxton Place car park.

The area would be landscaped and footpaths resurfaced in a bid to ensure it would operate as an integral part of the shopping centre.

Robinson’s say the scheme acknowledges the importance of the site and retains key buildings – including the vacant Union Inn and Bird-in-Hand public houses plus most of the former brewery buildings.

Vacant cottages of 4 and 6 Brewery Street will be replaced with a new retail and office building, designed to fit in with the character of the area.

Spokesman Tony Clowes said: “We have worked extensively on these plans and reached agreement with all of the key authorities to integrate the scheme into the fabric of the town centre for local people.

“We believe we have created an attractive, heritage-rich development, offering nume-rous benefits and giving convenience store shoppers a reason to spend their money within the town rather than elsewhere.”