WORK has started on the extension of the Shoprite store in Derby Road, Peel.
The supermarket chain’s planning application to expand the store (08/01260/B) was approved on appeal in January 2010, and recently work has got under way following a subsequent landswap deal over the car park with the town commissioners.
The aim of the expansion is to give shoppers a ‘wider choice’.
In-house appraisals identified that in general shoppers would use the store for the weekly shop if a greater range of goods were available (rather than for shopping for convenience foods on a daily basis).
It was also pointed out, during the planning permission process, that while housing in Peel had increased the retail space had not.
When the application for the extension was revealed in 2008, Shoprite’s Deryck Nicholson said: ‘The idea is to bring the store up to the size and quality of our outlets at Ramsey and Port Erin.’
Both Ramsey and Port Erin have, in the past year, seen major investment, including an improved store in the south and the opening of a dedicated Iceland store in the north.
He added: ‘It is part of our ongoing commitment to the local economy of the west of the island, and that of the Isle of Man.
‘We always intended to expand our Peel store and that it would be the last to get the full treatment.
‘It will enable us to offer the full Shoprite retail experience to people in Peel and the west – and with food and fuel prices shooting up all around us it will enable them to economise in both areas. Shoprite is a Manx concern through and through, with all that this implies for the Manx economy.’
Peel Town Commissioners’ clerk Peter Leadley explained that it had swapped its top car park (where the extension is now being built) for parking at the lower end of the car park.
‘We now have the whole row on the left [as you turn into Shoprite car park] right the length along and the amenity bins area too,’ he said, adding that the commissioners had also secured access via the Derby Road gateway. Although it’s not suggested that this will necessarily be opened up for use in the immediate future, it is seen as helpful to have.
Meanwhile, the top soil and sub soil removed during the groundworks for the extension have been given to the commissioners to level the former swimming pool site at Marine Parade, Peel. This has been done, but a griddle machine is to be brought in to remove stones out of the soil.
‘We will seed it and turn it into more of a recreational area,’ said Mr Leadley.
Four items of adult exercise equipment will be sited there as well as picnic tables. In addition, a small section between the pool and skateboard park will be made into a smooth ramp for skateboarding.