Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has come out fighting amid opposition to its plan for a new Birmingham store.
Earlier this summer, the firm was accused of “swindling” the city after it went back on a pledge to pay £6 million towards the building of the Selly Oak New Road and reinstate the Lapal Canal as part of its scheme for a development in Selly Oak.
More than 300 residents have already objected to the company’s new planning application for a store, shops, bars, cafes and a medical science business park, which will be considered by councillors on Thursday.
READ MORE: {}
But now Sainsbury’s has retaliated in unprecedented fashion with a full page advert in yesterday’s Mail comparing what it claimed were “rumours” with “the truth”.
Although no longer fully funding the canal reinstatement, the ad said the company and its partner, developer Land Securities, would “carry out enabling infrastructure works for the canal and the route would be legally protected to facilitate its future reinstatement”.
On the Selly Oak New Road, it said the payment deal was linked to previous store plans which were no longer viable.
The ad said: “A new planning application cannot be used to fund existing infrastructure.”
And elsewhere the ad said: “The site has been derelict for 30 years and the proposed development offers the only opportunity to finally end this and see the site cleaned up and regenerated.”
Most Read
In July, when asked to comment on the scheme, city council planning committee member Barry Henley criticised an authority report for failing to address the concerns of residents.
He said: “The local community did a lot of work on this and raised the swindle over the legal agreement and the swindle over the money for the relief road.
“They raised lots of issues, such as about how the canal could be reinstated, and these have not even been acknowledged.”