Town traders have accused South Holland District Council of stabbing them in the back and waving the white flag to Springfields over its extension plans.
Members of Spalding Town Retailers Association (STRA) reacted to The Voice front page, which acknowledged restrictions to limit sales at Springfields to outlet lines have not been upheld.
Coun Roger Gambba Jones, chairman of Spalding’s planning committee, said the council works hard to support town centre traders, but they must take the initiative in innovative ways to draw shoppers who use Springfields into Spalding.
The association’s views come on the back of the imminent closure of two of Spalding’s oldest independent stores – Revills Jewellers, due to retirement, and Spalding Music Services.
STRA chairman Darren Sutton said: “We need help to make Spalding a great town to visit – with a busy twice weekly market, events all year round and clean, safe streets.
“We need to give a clear signal to investors that the town centre is open for business. Businesses are dismayed that South Holland District Council seems to be hoisting the white flag and simply surrendering to Springfields.”
Springfields is set to be enabled to grow by 20 per cent by 2021 – and by the same amount again in the following five years, as previously reported. The expansion is proposed in the emerging South East Lincolnshire Local Plan, which states there is not enough space in the town centre for necessary retail provision for the growing town.
Coun Gambba-Jones, vice chairman of the South East Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee, said town centre retailers should challenge that evidence-based statement in the consultation process if they can prove it untrue.
He said planning conditions to restrict sales at Springfields hadn’t proven enforceable.
He added: “We are interested in assisting and supporting, but don’t have a bottomless pit of money.
“In many cases, it has to be the people who are delivering retail services, doing the job on the ground, that have to make things happen.
“What we have got with Springfields’ proposal, is an opportunity, when and if they bring their proposal forward, to work with them to capitalise on their investment and seek benefits for the town from their investment to see if we can do a better job to seek benefits from the extra footfall.”
He said it was too early to speculate on the detail of what could be achieved – a planning application is yet to be formulated.
