Supermarket scare

By Kath Gannaway
INDEPENDENT supermarkets from Wandin to Warburton are calling on retailers along the Warburton Highway to join them in a pre-emptive strike against a rumoured supermarket development at Seville.
The spokesperson for the newly formed Warburton Highway Retail Traders’ Association (WHRTA), Shane Wyles, who is the owner of Warburton IGA, warned last week that a ‘big chain’ supermarket on a 20,000-square-metre site would be detrimental not only to neighbouring supermarkets, but to other retail businesses and communities.
The site, which incorporates vacant land, the existing Shell service station and several shops on the north side of Warburton Highway, is owned by the locally-based Pace family.
A spokesman for the family, Robert Pace, confirmed that they plan to develop the land and that they had been approached by a number of interested parties.
He said any concerns were premature and that there would be plenty of time for public input once a proposal was put forward.
“It is just a concept at the moment. There is nothing concrete, we are just looking at our options,” Mr Pace said.
But Mr Wyles claimed that the WHRTA had the backing of a survey of Seville residents which showed that 80 per cent of respondents were against any new supermarket development in the town.
“There was an overwhelming vote by residents for not allowing local businesses, both in Seville and up and down the highway, to be jeopardised by a new supermarket development at Seville,” Mr Wyles said.
Yarra Ranges Shire has also indicated it would be seen as an inappropriate use of the site.
The shire’s community relations manager, James Martin, told the Mail although no formal application had been received, approaches had been made through a consultant for a possible commercial development, which included a supermarket.
He said the type of development flagged would require a planning scheme amendment.
“The consultant has been advised that the shire is unlikely to support such an application,” he said.
Mr Wyles said communities along the highway should be concerned.
“If this goes ahead, this will suck business from towns down from Wandin right through to Warburton.
“While Seville itself is one issue, there are broader issues the length and breadth of the Warburton Highway,” he said.
“It will reduce the amenity of every town. If businesses are effected by 10 or 15 per cent, that’s 10 of 15 per cent less employment, less support for football, Winterfest, schools and all the ongoing support that small businesses provide to their communities.
“If Coles build in Seville, they won’t contribute to the Warburton Christmas raffle, the Millwarra breakfast day or any of the other things small business does,” he said.
“From a personal point of view, and speaking for the Traders Association as a whole, let me make it plain that we are not opposed to appropriate development along the highway.
“We do strongly oppose inappropriate development, wrongly zoned development wherever it intrudes into our communities.
“Developers and the big chains are really trying it on if they intend a full-line supermarket being developed at Seville, seeing they have already been chased out of Emerald and are on the ropes in Mt Evelyn,” he said.
A spokesman for Coles Myer, general manager of media, Scott Wiffin, said the company’s policy is not to comment on future developments until there is something before the local council.
“At this stage, it is speculation,” he told the Mail.
On Mr Wyles’s claim that Coles do not contribute to local small communities, he said each store has a budget to support local activities and that the company has a ‘big picture’ approach which included last year contributing $14 million to charitable partners.
“It would be premature, however, to be talking about that,” he said “given that we’re not even in town yet!”