By Caroline Cooley

Council re-opens talks with Asda on Wealdstone

by CAROLINE COOLEY

Asda chiefs are due to meet Harrow Council tomorrow (Friday) to re-open talks on building a supermarket in Wealdstone.

The company has been invited to a meeting with council planners following a letter it sent to the authority's chief executive, Tony Redmond, expressing continued interest in being part of the redevelopment of the town centre.

New suggestions it is bringing to the table include a major concession on the size of the planned store, a key stumbling block which caused the controversial £20 million plan to collapse in October.

Planning committee chairman Councillor Navin Shah said he was looking forward to discussing Asda's ideas in more detail and how they could contribute to the regeneration of Wealdstone.

"We have to consider everyone, not just the traders," he said. "Environmental and transport considerations are just as important."

Asda has said it would consider scaling down the store from the 45,000sq ft in its original plans to 30,000sq ft, but warned this week that there was little chance it would reduce it further. The council said it would consider a store of between 30,000 and 20,000 sq ft, but preferably the latter.

"We could drop the size to 30 but any further and it would be financially unviable," an Asda spokeman said.

Ron Lucas, the new chairman of Wealdstone Traders' Association, was delighted the two sides had agreed to meet. "It's encouraging, and about time," he said.

 The Wealdstone Regeneration Steering Group is due to meet again on Tuesday.

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