A BID by Asda to expand its Kendal store with the creation of 80 jobs is on the desks of council planners this week.

The American-owned supermarket giant has submitted plans to South Lakeland District Council for a 1,200 square metre extension on the south western side of its Burton Road store. If approved, the shop's retail area would grow by some 17 per cent with the addition of 16 new parking spaces, reports Jennie Dennett.

"It's really a great big vote of confidence in Kendal that we can expand the store and increase our range to customers," said local store manager Joe Hurst.

He described the extension as a means to create wider aisles for a more comfortable shopping environment in addition to making space for extra clothes from in-house label George and for its household and leisure ranges.

Another 80 full and part-time staff on top of its existing 400-strong workforce would be hired to man the added retail room including more check-out operators and customer advisers.

The development would see an area of Asda's car park by the A65 swallowed up by the extension while new spaces are created in a field purchased by the supermarket some years ago along the store's north eastern side towards Oxenholme Road.

Asda has agreed to surface this new car park with perforated plastic known as Geoweb instead of tarmac after months of negotiation with SLDC planners - who were anxious to protect mature trees on the site. Grass will grow through Geoweb and water percolates down so the parking area would still resemble a field.

An independent traffic impact assessment submitted with the plans at the behest of Cumbria County Council predicted that only 32 to 35 extra car trips would be generated by the

store during Friday and Saturday peak hours.

And, in a further bid to limit traffic generation, the Asda-commissioned report suggested contributing £12,000 to build two bus and pedestrian shelters on Burton Road.

SLDC's Kendal planner Helen Signol said she expected to recommend councillors approve the application since Asda had responded to the authority's concerns in its latest plans.

But SLDC economy and development manager Richard Greenwood said he wanted to see a more detailed assessment of the impact of the store's growth on Kendal. A 2002 council-commissioned report suggested there was limited capacity for expansion of food shops and, since then, permission had been granted for Booths to develop on Stricklandgate.

"If Asda expands will that start eating into the profitability of town centre food retailers? That is something we need to look at if it's non-food then I think we can be a bit more relaxed about it. We do have clear guidance from Government that we should be investing as much as possible in town centres rather than out of town locations."

Commenting on Asda's plans, South Lakeland Small Business Federation treasurer Stuart Jones said the 700-strong organisation believed out of town shops should pay the same business rates as town centre stores so they could both compete on a level playing field.

The planning committee should make its decision at its June meeting.

Meanwhile, in a further boost to Kendal's retail sector, it emerged this week that high street fashion outfits Bay Trading and Oasis are due to open concessions in Beales Department Store on Finkle Street.

"It's fab news for Kendal," said Beales store director Annamarie Carmichael who felt the new outlets would really mark the town on the shopping radar for younger women.

Bay Trading is set to open in May above Principals in the empty unit vacated by Racing Green as long as it can recruit enough people, including a manager, senior adviser and several part-time sales staff. The outlet will include Bay Trading's trademark budget fashion alongside Dolcis shoes and children's clothes line Angel.

Meanwhile, Oasis is committed to opening its doors in August on the ground floor space currently occupied by Olsen that will be moving up to Beales's first floor.

April 17, 2003 18:00