Parties squabble over supermarket project (From Gazette Series)

Parties squabble over supermarket project

A NEW agent charged with re-marketing the Dursley supermarket site has been appointed amid political squabbling over the amount of information released on the project.

Stroud District Council announced this week that Hartnell, Taylor and Cook have been appointed as agents for the project, while members of Dursley Town Council claimed they were not being informed of the projects progress as promised.

"It's like getting blood out of a stone," said Labour member Cllr Geoff Wheeler told the Gazette this week.

"People in Dursley are entitled to know what Stroud District Council is doing about the supermarket site. Last time we put out a press release, we pushed them into making a statement at last.

"However, the only thing it said was that the council was appointing a new agent to act on the deal for the council and would receive new bids from developers by Christmas 2005. We are still waiting for any more information."

Cllr Daryl Matthews said the residents of Dursley needed to know what was happening if they were to have confidence in the project.

He said: "As the district council is the lead organisation in the group of landowners on the Castle Street site, it would provide the residents of Dursley with some confidence in the process if cabinet members could tell us a bit more.

"For a start, they could say what changes they will make to handling the negotiations. In view of the failure to bring them to success last time, we need to be reassured that they have thought about how to do things better this time."

Cllr Nigel Studdert-Kennedy, the district council's Conservative cabinet member for regeneration and tourism, said: "Cllr Wheeler's statement implies that probity and discretion are not required in these matters. As a former county councillor, he should know better.

"We all know that the original negotiations were terminated by Tesco's withdrawal of their offer. We all know that a developer has to be in agreement with three landowners and we all know that these processes take longer than we would like.

"This is about doing the best for Dursley. I am, therefore, sorry that Cllr Wheeler is trying to make political capital when we are all doing everything we can to achieve the very best for Dursley."

He said he hoped the new agents would be able to use their extensive local experience to provide a deal that was in Dursley's best interests.