New plans for long-awaited Sleaford Tesco site coming soon

Work has been continuing to bring forward these two developments in Sleaford, according to North Kesteven District Council which has seen it as a key objective for regeneration.

Final agreements on the Advanta Seeds site are almost in place, confirmed an NKDC spokesman. It is anticipated a development plan will come forward early this year.

The site was bought by supermarket giant Tesco but it shelved multi-million pound plans for a new store there in January 2015 after the company had to drastically reassess its expansion plans. Since then, it has been working with the district council to come up with a new scheme - possibly as part of a sell-off package.

Things looked more promising last spring when the Town Council agreed to allow a narrow strip of Boston Road Recreation Ground to be used for an access road through the neighbouring bowls club.

In return, Tesco agreed to add spare land to the western edge of the Recreation Ground, but since that news, everything has gone quiet.

A Tesco spokesperson told The Standard yesterday (Tuesday): “We are in discussions with the (district) council regarding bringing forward proposals for our site in Sleaford. We look forward to sharing these proposals with people locally in the coming months.”

As part of the original plans, it had been proposed to have a link road joining Mareham Lane with Boston Road running past the new store, but this hit opposition as it would also see the closure of the existing rail crossing on Southgate to traffic at the request of Network Rail, and cut a swathe through the recreation ground. The Town Council, as owner, was facing a compulsory purchase order but that has since been dropped.

The scrapping of the new store also halted plans by Avant Homes to redevelop the derelict Bass Maltings.

NKDC has told The Standard the road leading from Mareham Lane to the Bass Maltings is under new ownership and “positive conversations” are continuing regarding its future.

Coun Richard Wright, Leader of NKDC, said: “We know these developments are something the people of Sleaford have wanted to see for a long time. A lot of time and effort is being put in by all parties with positive talks happening regularly.

Everyone wants to see the best outcome for both of these key sites.”

The Town Council has also put in place a legal mechanism to ensure, as far as possible, it will prevent any access road causing the closure of the level crossing.