Traffic and parking concerns over plan for new supermarket

A NEW multi-million pound supermarket could be built in Plymouth within the next four years but residents have concerns about increased traffic and parking.

Cornwall-based Walker Developments wants to knock down the existing Weston Mill Oak Villa sports and social club and build an enormous Asda supermarket with a 349-space car park on playing pitches in a development said to cost tens of millions of pounds.

A new social club with its own parking would be built as part of the deal, along with a filling station, a new access road from St Budeaux bypass, and three new sports pitches. The proposal has been described as "win, win" by Asda and welcomed by the Weston Mill Oak Villa Sports and Community Association, which currently leases the land from Plymouth City Council.

But at a one-day public consultation some neighbouring residents had concerns about increased traffic and the effect the development would have on parking. Some people complained that the current social club car park was being used by workers from Devonport dockyard and they could be displaced to already busy nearby streets.