Cumbernauld retail park on hold after intervention from town centre bosses

Developers L&S Broadwood had intended to bring M&S Simply Food, Aldi and Home Bargains in the shadow of Broadwood Stadium.

The £20 million project with seven units in total was granted planning permission at North Lanarkshire Council

But its backers have now had a re-think after Cumbernauld Centre and Antonine Centre bosses mounted a legal challenge to the plan.

They argued that the project was on a bigger scale than first believed and that the granting of planning permission was thus “fundamentally flawed.”

L&S Broadwood’s Development Director Bryan Wilson said: “We are extremely disappointed that this development cannot proceed as planned until the legal challenge has been resolved.

“We had realistically intended to start site preparation and construction work in the next few months.

“This is particularly disappointing for us as we made a pledge to the residents of Westfield that we would bring some of the country’s biggest and best-loved brands and we were on course to honour that pledge.

“Around 400 local residents signed postcards supporting our application so we know they’ll be as disappointed as I do.

“It is particularly hard to take knowing that NLC planning committee unanimously backed our plans. “

“The ‘reasoned justification’ for backing the development was that it would be of benefit to an area of increasing population which is currently poorly served by major retail facilities and it could be developed without detriment to existing centres in the town.”

Mr Wilson added that his company is committed to taking every possible step to ensure that the plan goes ahead as soon as possible, including challenging the objections at the Court of Session.