CHRISTCHURCH is gearing up for a battle of the supermarkets as applications for three new food stores are drawn up.

Currently Sainsbury’s, Lidl, Waitrose, Co-operative and Marks and Spencer are already operating within the borough, in the town centre and at out-of-town sites.

But in the past month plans have also been submitted for a Morrisons on the site of Beagle Technology in Stony Lane, while Bournemouth-based developer Quantum has also outlined plans for a large supermarket – one of the “big four” – as part of a new riverside development at Bailey Retail Park.

And consultation for another food store on the former Stylesouth Interior site in Somerford Road will take place on Thursday.

A public exhibition on the proposals for the store at the Meteor Retail Park will take place between 2pm and 8pm at the Somerford Children’s Centre in Christchurch.

According to the developers, the plans will see the Meteor Retail Park “regenerated” with around 200 new jobs and an investment of around £5million.

Tom Whitehead of Brookhouse said: “This remains a great opportunity to secure an excellent new food store for the Grange area of Christchurch, creating new jobs and regenerating a brownfield site.”

The site, which already has permission for a deep discount store likely to be taken on by Aldi, was the subject of an unsuccessful appeal at the end of last year, with planning inspector David Nicholson echoing the council’s concerns about the affect a new supermarket would have on the vitality of the town centre.

It has also been revealed that Sainsbury’s at Lyndhurst Road are drawing up plans to expand, as it is currently “considerably overtrading”.

David Lowin, planning director from WYG Planning and Design revealed at a recent Core Strategy meeting that a planning application would be submitted in “due course”.

Henry Lumby, partner at Quantum, who has submitted plans for a multi-million pound riverside development scheme behind Bailey Retail Park, just off Barrack Road said their development was much more than just a supermarket.

He said: “We are the only site which is a redundant site and there would be no loss of jobs both in retail and manufacturing.

“Also the other two proposals are both located in the east of the borough.

“Our scheme will also bring some much needed affordable housing to the borough, it is available now and there is no risk of losing businesses to other areas.”

Graeme Cosgrove, director of development at Simons, which along with Morrisons has applied to build on the Beagle site, said: “We are delighted to submit these plans, which would bring new jobs to Christchurch and help Beagle Aircraft expand to a new site.

“We received really positive feedback from the local community during our public consultation and we would like to thank all those in Christchurch who took the time to let us know what they think.”

The plans

Quantum’s plans for MOD land

• Large food store

• Extensive on-site parking

• Community play park

• Low cost gym

• 25 units of affordable housing with Sovereign Twynham

• Around 300 new jobs

• Ferry link to Christchurch

• A pedestrian bridge, possibly in the style of a Bailey Bridge, will link Christchurch and Bournemouth

Meteor Retail Park

• 30,000 sqft foodstore.

• Bring unused site back into use.

• Create around 200 jobs including senior management, flexible hours for people with young children, and construction jobs during development.

• Investment of around £5m.

• Public exhibition taking place on Thursday with telephone number 0800 019 2054 set-up for the community as well.

Morrisons at Beagle Technology

• Could create around 300 new jobs

• Beagle Technology due to move to new unit at Bournemouth Airport.

• 376 car parking spaces

• New pedestrian link to Bridge Street.

• Two additional retail units

What the Chamber of Trade say

Terry Atkinson, secretary of Christchurch Chamber of Trade and Commerce said the association assessed each application on its individual merits.

“For each application we will look at what the offering is in terms of convenience and comparison goods and they we would try to get an idea of how much it will affect town centre.

“We also look at where they think they will get the trade from and the transport infrastructure.

“At the moment food trade is withstanding the economic climate.

“When things get tough people eat. And the supermarkets are the ones with money at the moment.

“Some of the emerging companies have a strategic objective to grow and want to be bigger than others.”