A UNANIMOUS vote has welcomed plans for a large M&S store on the Weymouth Gateway site.

The new building will be double the size of the seafront M&S, which is likely to close in 2027, with 45 new jobs expected to be created by the new development, adding to the 340 already at The Gateway.

Fifty additional jobs will also be created during the construction phase.

There has been some concern about the loss of the town centre M&S with fears that other stores could follow and look for out of town sites.

M&S say the new multi-million store will be ‘full-range’ joining other businesses, such as Aldi, B&M, Costa, Dunelm and McDonalds which are already operating from the retail park.

Weymouth councillor David Northam said lessons needed to be learnt from the loss of town centre businesses in the forthcoming review of the Dorset Local Plan.

He said the Gateway site, overall, had not achieved its ambition, with a failure to attract other commercial uses and remains mostly a retail park.

“If this was for something, other than M&S, this might not have had the level of support it has,” he said.

Wyke Regis councillor Kate Wheller (Lab), who proposed accepting the development, said the advantage of the site is that it has good transport links and was likely to attract shoppers into Weymouth from a wide area.

She expressed concern about allowing deliveries up until 11pm, asking for an earlier cut-off, but was told the delivery area was to the east side of the development, some way from homes, and would be surrounded by an acoustic fence to muffle any noise.

Lyme Regis and Charmouth Green councillor Belinda Bawden said she was now likely to travel (on the bus) to M&S in Weymouth when it opened, rather than go to Exeter.

The Dorset Council area planning committee on Thursday (3rd) heard that council officers had worked with the developers since the submission of the early proposals, to ‘tone-down’ with cladding in earthy colours, what was originally described as “a white box” - with additional trees to break up the appearance of the car park.

Ward member Cllr Louise Bown (Radipole Lib Dem) said residents in adjoining St Andrew’s Road feared there might be extra flooding in their gardens and were worried about the sewage system with sewage now occasionally bubbling up in their toilets  – both situations, they claim, made worse by development off Mercery Road.

“Wessex Water haven’t paid due attention to this and I also think the developers haven’t given due care and attention to the consequences of their actions,” she said.

Upwey and Broadwey councillor David Northam (Lib Dem) said he remained worried about the effect on town centre businesses with the move to out of town sites.

He said that while the companies developing the Gateway site were please with the use of the site as a retail park he would rather have seen more jobs created by having mixed uses – pointing out that when the idea of developing the area started it was called the Mount Pleasant Business Park.

“I was disappointed to hear that they were pleased they have converted it to a retail park. I’m not – because key employment is what we really need in Weymouth, with our already poor opportunities for local employment which are focused on tourism and retail… it needs more breadth.”

He questioned the claim that businesses moving out of the town centre were, largely, being replaced, saying he believed that new user were often smaller, or less attractive..

The planning consent has now been delegated to the council's head of planning to reach agreement on the details, including the moving of a sewer which crosses the site, prior to the building work starting.

The decision will also have to be referred to the Secretary of State under the Government’s rules which seek to protect town centre shopping because the use does not fully comply with the council’s development plans. There is a 21-day period for that to happen.

A similar process applied at phase 2 of the Gateway development which was not called in by the Government.

The joint application was submitted by LondonMetric Property and Avercet who say the new store, added to those already there, will enhance Weymouth as a shopping destination.

Avercet director Christopher Newns told councillors that with LondonMetric over eight years they had developed a site which had been vacant for years into a “a vibrant retail park despite the challenges of the pandemic and in phases one and two have met all our promises for the site.”

Phil Marsden from M&S said the new store would enable the company to “showcase our whole range and commit to Weymouth for the long-term.”

He said that during the consultation phase 86 per cent of people surveyed, said they supported the new store proposal, which was also backed by Weymouth Town Council.

The planning application includes 234 additional parking spaces including 10 extra EV charging points and covered cycle racks, and associated infrastructure and landscaping. In addition, there will be a financial contribution to support Dorset Council’s e-bike hire scheme.

Illustration – Computer generated image of how the new M&S store might look (please use this one, rather than the one used last time - the design has changed) Pic Developer Chhris Newns (centre right) Illustration - M&S original proposal, since changed with cladding added to the white surfacing.

Illustration - The existing vacant site.