New town centre: Has a Council presence been shelved?

Plans for Bradley Stoke’s new town centre approved in October 2007 included a ‘Council Drop-in Centre’ to be located on the ground floor of one of the ‘town centre units’ positioned around the new town square. The intention for Bradley Stoke Town Council to have a presence in the new town centre is clear from various meeting minutes on the Council’s website and is confirmed as an ‘objective’ in its Strategic Performance Plan for 2007-2010.

However, in a recent application for a variation to the approved plans, the previously-shown Council Drop-in Centre seems to have disappeared from the plans. At a meeting of the Council’s Planning, Environment & Amenities Committee on 27th February 2008 (minutes yet to appear on the Council’s website) a blunt “no comment” response was given to a resident’s question about how plans for the Drop-in Centre were progressing.

Strangely, the Council Drop-in Centre would appear to be back on the agenda, if the information leaflet about the new town centre development (available from last week in the existing Tesco store) is to be believed. Readers should note however, that Tesco has a track record of publishing out-of-date information – as evidenced by notices in the existing store claiming the new store will open in October 2008 and their own Tesco Bradley Stoke website that still states it will open “by the end of 2007”.