A new furniture shop on the outskirts of Elgin has been approved by Moray Council, despite fears the development could spell disaster for the town centre.
Work on Grampian Furnishers’ £3.5million showroom will begin within weeks, after the proposal was backed by six votes to two during a planning meeting yesterday.
Bosses confirmed the demolition of a derelict steading, cottage and dairy at Waulkmill House, off the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road, was scheduled imminently.
Concerns have been raised that the development sets a “dangerous precedent” and studies found it would hammer high street takings by £500,000 each year.
Elgin’s business improvement district (Bid) group has lashed out at the committee’s decision, fearing the store will pave the way for a new retail park to the east of the town.
Bid manager Gill Neill said: “One of the reasons for this group is to help the centre cope with the increasing pressures caused by out-of-town retail developments.
“We know the lost £500,000 will cause anxiety among traders.”
Elgin City South councillor John Divers is a member of the planning committee but sat out yesterday’s meeting as he is a director of the regeneration group.
Last night, he added: “I am very disappointed in my fellow councillors, Bid has slowly taken the town centre forward, and this will pull business away from the high street.
“This will just add to the problems, and takes away an area of badly-needed industrial land.”
Grampian Furnishers owner Royce Clark announced plans to relocate from the firm’s long-time home in Lossiemouth in December.
Mr Clark said staying at the former cinema building on Queen Street would not allow the business to grow.
He and planning consultant Brian Muir began yesterday’s crunch meeting with a presentation outlining the potential positives of the move.
Representatives from Elgin Bid then launched an ill-fated last-minute appeal for councillors to knock back the scheme.
They argued against departing from guidelines that the land in question be reserved for industrial use.
Following more than an hour of discussion, Tory councillor Marc Macrae moved that the application be granted.
He was seconded by Donald Gatt, also a Conservative.
SNP member Aaron Maclean grilled the applicants on whether sufficient consideration had been given to other potential locations – such as Elgin’s former auction mart or the old Tesco site in Forres.
But Councillor Maclean and fellow Nationalist Louise Laing eventually sided with the Tories in backing the plan.
SNP representatives David Bremner and Amy Patience were the only two councillors who opposed approval.
Mr Bremner said: “This is a departure from the local plan, and I don’t think the impact on other shops in the area will be acceptable.”
But Mr Clark stressed that studies had found that any impact on town centre takings would be minimal.
And he welcomed yesterday’s decision as a means of keeping the business local, admitting that he could have been forced to reluctantly relocate outwith Moray had the application been rejected.
Mr Clark said: “I have been working on this for four years, so I had some huge nerves.
“I thought this could go either way, but the figures actually worked in our favour.
“It is expected that the shop will take away £500,000 from the centre, which is 0.5% of its roughly £100million turnover.
“I didn’t want to move away, but we might have had to look further afield in the future if this proposal was knocked back.”
Mr Clark added that he was “glad party politics had been put to one side” following the result.
There were cheers from the packed public gallery in the council chambers when the decision was announced.
The new shop will act as a company headquarters, with offices for backroom staff, and will include a cafe for visitors.
