Long Rock Depot expansion

[Busaholic]

I have a friend with a peripheral interest in railways, principally because he regularly travels from Penzance to both Plymouth a nd London. He has an acquaintance who works in a management role for one of the major supermarkets in the West Cornwall area. Said person was telling him over a drink at the weekend that Morrisons had agreed to sell their supermarket site at Long Rock, which abuts the railway line and (at one end) the existing depot to Network Rail (?) for £2O million, presumably subject to necessary planning consents.

Morrisons quitting the site has been half-expected locally since Sainsburys opened on an adjoining site last autumn, which itself is next to a Tesco. You could ask what our planners are on and I could give an answer potentially libellous, so I won't. This supermarket person doesn't work for Morrisons but seems to know all the sales figures and targets for all three supermarkets in detail.

So my question to others more knowledgeable than myself is - does this sound feasible, not so much in terms of the £20 million which is obviously negotiable but in the amount of space required for an expansion. Coincidentally (?) the recycling area owned by Morrisons which is only feet away from the depot has already closed due, supposedly, to flytipping.

 

[Frank Scully]

As an ex employee of the previous owners of the site, Safeway, can I add my two cents here. The site is adjacent to the main line, just west of the Long Rock Depot. IIRC, the depot itself is also surrounded by light commercial development. You would need to deal with numerous land owners and tenants to buy up closer to the depot. It is probably the only single large site in that area - a 35000sq ft building + car parking + rear servicing with with direct access on to the A30 dual carriageway. Bringing the land sale full circle, Safeway bought this land off British Rail back in the late 80s/early 90s!

I wouldn't place too much stock in the closure of the recycling area as Tesco closed their facility at their St Ives store due to neighbour complaints.

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.127...!1e1!3m2!1sJQaMp9BJFicin7-QwlplNg!2e0!6m1!1e1

Here you can see the derelict land adjacent to the A30 and immediately to the west of the Morrisons store. This land presumably could accommodate some of the new depot as well. You can see the store on the far left with the two pyramid structures on the roof.

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.128...!1e1!3m2!1suu-wgEDcQIOPnx2R1SE8nQ!2e0!6m1!1e1

View showing car park and store frontage with active railway line in the background.

Buying this store and bring the derelict land back in to use could be sufficient to build a new depot?

 

[83G/84D]

Oh the irony! If true this will see a former railway depot site be converted back to railway use, bizarre and a first? (no pun intended by the way).

There is / was also talk of re-activating the disused sidings at Ponsandane which are by the way opposite Sainsburys.

With regard to recycling centres at supertmarkets, Tesco at Camborne threatened to close the one at the town store as "inappropriate items" were being deposited in the recycling bins. This caused a number of complaints from workers emptying them.

 

[Busaholic]

Morrisons have denied in local paper 'Cornishman' today any plans to close, in response to 'gossip on social forums'. All PLCs of course always deny such things until they themselves announce them, so nothing to be read into that. If the figure is anywhere near £20 million they'd be mad not to take it however the store is doing: personal observations, anecdotal evidence, etc would suggest numbers using iot are well down in the last year and no money is being spent on it. If you only have 4 self-service tills and one or two are seemingly out of action or not accepting cards or, sometimes, cash and the manager admits they are not fit for purpose, you'll have problems retaining customers.