Social media kills Ivybridge Aldi plans

Outsiders blamed too

Social media and people from outside Ivybridge have been blamed for the collapse of plans to build a new Aldi supermarket which left the council out of pocket by almost half a million pounds.  

In July, South Hams District Council (SHDC) rejected the project following a fierce campaign which saw them in conflict with Ivybridge town council. 

SHDC had agreed to put £9 million into the project  which would have seen the supermarket built behind the town hall on Leonards Road car park; land owned by South Hams council. 

The council’s decision to pursue the plans followed a public consultation in 2020 which showed two thirds of nearly 2,000 respondents thought a new supermarket would improve footfall into the town centre and supported the proposals.

But two years later, after SHDC had already invested £480,000, critics described it as “degeneration, not regeneration.”

At a meeting of SHDC’s audit and governance committee on Thursday 20 October, members discussed a report on what had gone wrong with  Ivybridge’s regeneration scheme and how to avoid mistakes in the future. 

Lib Dem councillor for West Dart, John McKay, said he thought the writing had been on the wall for some time and the proposal should have been halted earlier.  

“This project should have probably been wound down, or at least its motives questioned,” he told councillors. “But none of that happened. 

“We just plodded on regardless until finally the planning committee chucked it out, quite rightly, because it was a pretty poor application that was being presented to the committee.”

Chairing the committee, Conservative councillor for Ivybridge West, Lance Austen, said they took the decision to pursue the project believing residents and businesses wanted the supermarket before an campaign was organised against it.  

“Having taken that decision and continued with it, we then continued with the public consultation by publishing the plans of the supermarket, which seemed cause outrage,” explained Cllr Austen.

“And at that point there was a campaign launched against the whole project which culminated in a site visit where plenty of people turned up and heckled those people who arrived. 

“The town council completely changed its opinion and came out with a totally different decision and there was a pretty ferocious social media campaign against the project.”

Cllr Austen said he felt much of the campaign was being organised by people who lived outside the area. 

“I was constantly being contacted by people who didn’t live in Ivybridge and lived in places like Cornwood for example and some of the sort of more expensive surrounding areas telling me how they didn’t want an Aldi in the town.

“But they didn’t really start campaigning until later on. And then when they did, they were particularly effective in using social media.”

But Lib Dem councillor for Stokenham, Julian Brazil, disagreed.  He suggested local people and businesses had lost confidence in the council’s ability to deliver the project. 

“One of the reasons why it was unanimously refused is because in the original report they talked about improving the public realm,” said Cllr Brazil.

“They talked about moving the skatepark. They talked about increased car parking spaces. And they talked about regeneration. By the time it came to the planning committee, none of those had been resolved. So the original report was inaccurate.

“If you don’t sort out what you’ve promised to people then, when it actually came to the planning application and people could see actually what it was, they thought, ‘well, hang on a sec. We’re not getting what we were told we were going to get. Of course, we don’t support it,’ partly because talking to the residents is one thing; how about listening to them? That might help.

“And that obviously didn’t happen. And the feeling, if you go into Ivybridge now, particularly from the Chamber of Commerce, is that they were not listened to by this council, and that’s why they turned against it, because they just didn’t think they were being listened to.”

Cllr Brazil added he was concerned SHDC may not have learned from the process. 

“I’m sorry to say that this report does nothing to allay my fears that, in a similar situation, we wouldn’t find ourselves in that position again.” 

Councillors on the committee agreed to note the contents of the project closure report and, within the next six months, adopt a new planning protocol for major developments.