THE long-running Stadium for Cornwall saga could finally be showing signs of movement after councillors set a date for a planning meeting to decide the financing scheme.
Despite the signs of progress in the plans to build the 10,000 seat venue, concerns have been raised by residents that Truro could now be inundated with supermarkets despite insufficient demand if accompanying plans go ahead.
Developers Inox group were late runners in the race to build a store on the western outskirts of Truro last year.
Their superstore-and-housing project, at West Langarth, is billed as an enabling scheme for the Stadium for Cornwall, which already has outline planning permission.
However, two of the three rivals have appealed against the decision to push their applications past the statutory time limits and will be the subject of separate planning inquiries in the summer.
Rob Nolan, chairman of the strategic planning committee, said the popular Inox scheme will be heard by committee in March alongside an Asda scheme at Willow Green.
Two further applications for sites at Maiden Green and Hendra, which are earmarked by Morrisons, are also on the same agenda.
The Liberal Democrat admits that approval for the Inox scheme could in theory be followed by decisions by the planning inspector to rubber stamp two more competing applications.
Councillor Nolan said suitable venues and a senior planning inspector was being sought to resolve the "hugely complicated" issue at a meeting in August.
"It is chaos – it is very difficult the way it has worked out," he told the Western Morning News.
"Our retail experts have given us a bit of wriggle room and said there will be room for one more small supermarket but there is no room for another (large) one.
"We are going to hear them all in March – if we give them what they want they will drop their appeals, I guess."
The matter was set to be decided in September last year at a so-called super planning meeting for three schemes.
However, Inox then warned the authority that a planned venue and home for the Cornish Pirates rugby team would be killed off if another superstore was given planning permission before its plans are considered.
And despite a warning from the senior legal officer Liz Dunstan that deferring the decision could result in a costly legal battle with the disgruntled applicants, councillors concluded that the West Langarth plan carried enough weight that it should be a material consideration in determining the rival applications.
The committee deferred a decision until Inox's application was ready by just 11 votes to 10.
The latest proposals from Inox describe a 6,000-capacity stadium, ready as early as 2017, built in west Truro as a privately-funded £10 million project.
A second phase of the project would then add another 4,000 to the capacity to meet Premiership criteria, allowing Pirates to gain promotion if they win the Championship.
Coun Nolan, said there was concern that none of the other schemes offered enough to the community in terms of offsetting any damage to traders in the city.
He also revealed that officials remained anxious that the Inox plan may not be ready for a March 12 meeting.
Rob Slatmarsh, managing director of Inox Group, which is working with Henry Boot Developments, Truro and Penwith College and the Cornish Pirates, said the application was complete and minor details, prompted by a change in the retail requirements, were being addressed.
He added: "If our application is granted it will generate millions of pounds of benefit for the local economy via the delivery of a Stadium for Cornwall, and no other application does this."
