Our strategy then was not to prevent the controlled expansion of Morpeth, but to engage with the Council in supporting the regeneration of the coalfield villages, particularly Widdrington Station and Hadston, rather than just focusing on the growth of the main towns of Morpeth and Ponteland.

We won significant support from the Planning Inspector at the time, a decision which particularly reduced the proposals for the St George's Hospital Masterplan, which the Council had been promoting with the NHS, meaning that St George's ended up with a 'Phase 1' planning permission for about 150 houses, rather than the 1,000-plus that was in the grand plan at the time.

It is this issue that leads me to write about the current proposals. I might be missing something that has happened in the intervening period, but the Council's replacement for the old Local Plan, the new 'Local Development Framework' (LDF), was not completed before the recent switch to a Unitary Authority, as is the case across the whole of Northumberland and Durham.

Consequently, the new Unitary Authority will now (presumably) engage in the process of a County wide LDF, which will hopefully be completed within the next couple of years, providing a Strategic Planning Framework for future growth of the main towns and service centres.

If I am right, then surely the conclusions of the last Planning Inspector to look at the proposals for Morpeth should carry significant weight? My recollection of the finally adopted Local Plan (2003?) was that the Inspector had ruled out the growth of Morpeth in a 'Southerly' direction, in favour of the longer term, more strategic growth, to the North with the key to unlocking all of this being the completion of the Morpeth North Bypass.

Over the last few years, the Pegswood Bypass has been delivered and we are now only missing the final link around St George's, to meet the A1 at a new junction to the North of Lancaster Park, this link would take significant commuter traffic flow away from Morpeth town Centre, but it is likely to only be delivered with financial support from new development.

I also recall studies carried out by Castle Morpeth on the potential for retail and employment opportunities in the area around the proposed A1 junction, together with spare land that could be released from the Northgate Hospital site, so surely the decision on a new supermarket should not be based solely on a 'beauty parade' between Tesco and Sainsbury, but on a Strategic Masterplanning exercise, looking carefully at all of the opportunities?

I am not involved in any of these sites, so have no axe to grind with either company, however, I am aware that the ownership of St George's was transferred from the NHS to English Partnerships, the Government's Regeneration Agency, which is now part of the new Homes and Communities Agency, so there should be significant support in the Public Sector for the 'Morpeth North' option.

In 2007, St George's was also the subject of the 'Northumberland Growth Point' bid, submitted by the Northumberland Strategic Partnership (NSP), so could we not see an alternative proposal that also delivered the long awaited completion of the Morpeth Bypass? Similar large strategic sites elsewhere in the country have benefitted from public sector 'pump priming' of infrastructure costs, ultimately recovered from the private sector developer's as and when development proceeds, so why not Morpeth?

On a personal note, my wife would love either Sainsbury or Tesco to come to any site in Morpeth, because, although she uses Morrisons most weeks, when it comes to the 'big shop' and I have to help push the trolley, we trundle down the spine road to Asda at Blyth. Also, when I am sent out 'meat shopping' on a weekend I would highly recommend the farm shops at Widdrington Village and Stannington for good quality local produce (and free parking within yards of the door).

So, sorry Morpeth Chamber of Trade, you can't force people to use existing shops in Morpeth by simply objecting to both of these proposals, but let us have a healthy debate around all of the options open to us and not rush in to a hasty decision that would be irreversible.

GEOFF WOODCOCK
Widdrington Station