Morrisons – different sides to the story

Local councillors recently asked South Glos to investigate whether, if Morrisons move out of their warehouse on Armstrong Way, the planning permission could be changed so that it would no longer been used as a distribution depot.

This would have the effect of removing a good deal of heavy goods traffic from roads in Yate and the surrounding villages – Iron Acton and Rangeworthy residents have been complaining for years about the volume of lorry movements.

The question is whether the site is appropriate for distribution use now – would planning permission be granted if it was a new site? In view of the other traffic problems in the area, quite possibly not. This is being interpreted as local councillors trying to drive Morrisons out of town, but it’s just asking for a reassessment of the site in the light of changed circumstances.

Whatever happens, some lorries will still have to go in and out of Yate, to bring things in local people want and need and to take away things that are made here, but with major distribution centres you have lorry traffic coming in and going out again with little benefit to local people. Those sorts of uses are far better right next to motorway junctions so that the lorries don’t have to trundle up and down the narrow country roads or get tangled with town rush hours.

What would be the overall effect on local employment? Even if the planning permission was changed, this would still be employment land. Different employment uses could quite possibly bring more jobs – South Glos officials say that distribution provides a very low number of jobs for the area of land taken up.

But are Morrisons definitely going? Morrisons management indicated quite a while back – long before any changes of weight restrictions on rural roads - that they would be closing some but not all of their smaller depots once their Bridgwater depot opened. Workers at Morrisons however have been given the impression that the Yate depot WILL close.

Steve Webb is going to be visiting the Morrisons depot, and we’ll ask him to report back what he finds out.