This Wednesday morning Henry Rowe attended the Breakfast Club meeting and had the opportunity to listen to a talk from representatives of Sainsbury's Supermarket.

As many of you may know, Sainsbury's are currently negotiating a planning application for a new store on the Thaxted Road, adjacent to the recycling centre.  So what did I find out?  Well, the store is going to be big, in fact, larger than the current Tesco store by some way.  It is also going to have a first floor cafeteria overlooking the town, which sounds fantastic and will be an ideal stopping off point for me when returning from a valuation in Thaxted / Wimbish / Debden etc.  The store will be well serviced by regular bus services and have ample car parking and although there is no petrol station planned, this may come in the future. 

In addition, as part of their planning application, Sainsbury's are looking to a number of improvements to the roads within Saffron Walden.  In particular, there will be new traffic lights adjacent to the Lord Butler Leisure Centre, also on that very busy junction between Mount Pleasant and Debden Road and, finally, improvements to the junction of Thaxted Road, East Street and Radwinter Road. 

Another question was asked, "Where are the big lorries going to travel from to service the supermarket?  The suggestion put forward by Sainsbury's was that they will approach the store from the south and Great Dunmow.  Therefore, there will be no big trucks travelling through the centre of Saffron Walden.

All the above is still subject to a planning application, but it was certainly an interesting meeting - let's wait and see what happens.  If you would like to find out more about the Sainsbury's store yourself, there is a website www.sainsburys-saffronwalden.co.uk, where you can also download a questionnaire with your own comments.