The proposal to develop a retail park just off the roundabout close to Springfields had little, if anything, to recommend it.
Certainly, profound concerns about traffic congestion and safety are warranted, as significant additional traffic would mean that already busy roads would likely become jammed.
Yet, there is a still more fundamental objection to this bizarre scheme.
Along with councillors, I secured £20 million from the previous (Conservative) Government to regenerate Spalding.
As a result, much work has been done by a board comprising dedicated local people to plan and fund improvements to the town’s heart.
Such efforts simply cannot be reconciled with edge of town developments, which would take further footfall from the town’s centre to its very edge.
All at a time when national and local government are supposed to be discouraging unnecessary car journeys.
Unless the Neighbourhood Board’s work is to be downgraded or disregarded altogether, this damaging scheme to move yet more retail activity to Spalding’s margins should be abandoned, without delay.
Sir John Hayes MP
Member of Parliament for South Holland and the Deepings
