Marks & Spencer and Tesco have jointly submitted an outline planning application for a superstore development at Handforth in Cheshire.
The application, to Macclesfield Borough Council, is for two 120,000-sq ft superstores, a petrol filling station and surface parking for around 2,400 cars, on land next to the proposed A34 Handforth/Wilmslow bypass. No development costs are being revealed at the moment, although the two parties will share the cost equally.
This is the second joint application by M&S and Tesco, the first proposed scheme being at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. In both cases, the stores will operate independently of one another.
Architects at Handforth are the Mason Richards Partnership.
Meanwhile, Tesco have this week defended out-of-town superstores, which they say “can play an important role in safeguarding both the character and the commercial viability of the UK High Street”.
In the 15th of the firm’s occasional papers, The High Street of Tomorrow, the relationship of large, off-centre stores to the High Street is examined.
The paper also compares UK planning practices with those prevailing in Europe and the USA.
Tesco’s chairman, Ian MacLaurin, said that the paper illustrates the continental example, where hypermarkets on the edges of towns have not harmed central shopping areas.
