As today’s Free Press makes do with old news about Easter pub closures, yesterday’s Visitor scooped with a front page on Dinbych/Denbigh Tesco, also in yesterday’s Daily Post.The on-off saga of Tesco in Dinbych may at last be reaching a climax. Don’t believe what you read in the newspapers. Cathco, the same developer responsible for Tesco Rhuthun, stirred the public’s imagination about a supermarket in Dinbych not 15 months ago but just over three years ago! It revealed it would be Tesco over two years ago. It was 15 months ago that it received planning permission for a Tesco store.
According to the papers, it blames a “legal wrangle” for a lack of progress. “Wrangle” implies a bitter, entrenched dispute. This may be so but the delay’s also likely to be a result of the state of the economy. Previous news reports have said as much.
Judging by the newspaper reports, community leaders appear to welcome Tesco Dinbych. After all, the former Kwik Save site at Station Yard has been lying fallow for over two years. There remains a solitary trader, Motor World.What affect will the new Tesco plus 19 units have on the town and on Rhuthun?
A Dinbych councillor was moved to say that the development would stop the haemorage of local people shopping in Rhyl and Llandudno. Since Tesco and its associated units will all be large by Rhuthun’s standards, the retail offer is also likely to be a significant draw for Rhuthun residents. This may yet compound any harm Tesco *may* already have done to Rhuthun town centre. We’ve already speculated that this might be the case and for those traders whose profits are marginal, it might be enough to force their closure. Plus, there’ll be a loss of Rhuthun visits from Dinbych people who currently prefer Rhuthun’s Tesco to Dinbych’s Morrison’s. It seems this rebalancing might be Denbigh Dogs 1 Ruthin Cats 0 (old rivalries surface when you mention Denbigh Dogs & Ruthin Cats).
And Dinbych itself? In spite of a population double Rhuthun’s, Dinbych has a quarter fewer retail units. This imbalance will be remedied once the 19 units surrounding Tesco’s anchor are let. There are currently 22 per cent of shops vacant within the town. On the one hand, the Tesco development, in altering the centre of gravity of the town, is unlikely to offer a helping hand and may threaten existing businesses. On the other, the town vacant units are small by comparison to the needs of today’s larger retailers. Town centre units are unlikely to attract the most likely incomers to cling to Tesco, such as New Look, Poundland, W H Smith, etc. Perhaps Boots will move.Some in Dinbych feel that the smaller units are merely a sop to drive through the planning permission given 15 months ago. Others point to the multiplicity of traders riding on Kwik Save’s coat tails.
And then there’s Prestatyn. Word on the street there indicates that this even longer running saga (since 1997) may shortly be concluded, with Tesco poised to give a start date. The parallel adjacent proposed retail development is said to have collapsed. Prestatyn currently has no mainstream supermarket. With an unoccupancy rate of 13 per cent, it’s doing better than the local average. For Ruthun’s rate, see here.