Contamination work holds up Tesco

PLANS for Brixham's town centre regeneration scheme have been delayed due to contamination work which could cost £1million to remedy.

Store giants Tesco are remaining tight-lipped about a rumoured £1million bill for dealing with contamination underneath the Brixham town centre site for their newest retail complex.

But the company has admitted the former multi-storey car park which was built on a gasworks and ancient harbour bed is 'an engineering challenge' and the next round of public consultation has been delayed several weeks.

Town councillors were discussing the issue at their latest regeneration committee.

At the meeting Cllr Vic Ellery said: "I understand an extra £1million will be needed to protect the site from contamination. Therefore it will affect the project's viability."

Council chairman Chris Bedford said: "It's just a rumour. However, any additional cost will affect the land value. There will be technical measures needed to provide extra support for any building."

Committee chairman Nick Henderson said: "I understood we might not see a firm proposal from Tesco until December because of complications."

Originally the harbour extended beyond the town hall and much of the sub-structure of the car park area is made-up ground.

Extensive drilling operations have been carried out by firms contracted to Tesco over the summer to establish the make-up of the parking area.

The final Tesco supermarket/parking/housing/shops plan was due for display this month for public consultation but this has now slipped back several weeks.

Tesco spokesman Dan Bramwell said: "It is a challenging engineering exercise. Until we have established the engineering situation, the costings can't be finalised.

"We are plodding on. We had hoped to go to the second round of public consultation this month.

"However, it has taken longer than we thought to establish the ground conditions. We have also had some local feedback from Brixham 21 Ltd and done some tweaking of the plans."

He was reluctant to be tied down to a date but said he was confident the scheme would be made public 'shortly', any revisions made later and a final planning application submitted 'in a few months time'.

A Brixham Regeneration Project Group report by Torbay Development Agency confirms that 'the level and extent of contamination on the town centre site is being discussed and agreed. This will have an impact on the land value of the site."

At the regeneration meeting councillors heard there could also be delays to the scheme because of a new EU ruling which prevents developers 'tying up' publicly-owned development sites.

It all depends on barristers' opinions.

The councillors were told that all land for sale within public ownership which has a specific end function must be advertised through the Official Journal of the European Union.

The current scheme may fall foul of a recent ruling, members heard.

The TDA report concluded that going down that route would add a 'considerable period of time to the programming of these works'.

Constuction is due to start in autumn 2009 if planning approval is given.

The report states a new agreement with the store giants is currently being discussed by council lawyers, and specialist barristers are being quizzed over whether the Brixham scheme actually falls outside the new EU ruling.

The report confirms: "Tesco are aware of the situation and are working with us to achieve a satisfactory outcome."