by Marcus Mabberley

Traders in Aldershot town centre fear the imminent Westgate development will damage their businesses.

Work on the £60million project — on wasteland near the Willems roundabout near the Tesco superstore — is due to start by the end of the year.

As final plans are made for the development, some traders feel it will affect their takings.

David Walters, manager of Herberts Foam and Textiles in Victoria Road, said the new development would attract people away from the town centre.

“Retail is dead at the moment and I feel that the Westgate will adversely affect us here,” he said.

Louisa Roth, who works in Pets Pets Pets in the High Street, said she thought that the development would have a damaging effect on shops at the football ground end of town. Many people would not bother to trek down that far.

“People will only be looking to go to Tesco and then the Westgate,” she said.

She felt that council officers and the developers should co-ordinate improvements to the town centre with the development on the edge of town.

“They should do it all together to get it out of the way and give the whole town a facelift,” she said.

Another High Street trader, who did not want to be named, said that consultation between the council and town centre businesses about the development had been poor.

“They should be looking at improving what’s already here before building such an outlandish proposal like this,” he said.

“It’s been on the cards for years and I’m fed up with it really. There should have been more talk between them and us about the progress of it all.

“I’m sure that the hotel and flats will be all swank, but how’s that going to benefit us?”

The Westgate complex will feature a bingo hall, a health and fitness centre, a nightclub and a seven-screen cinema.

It will also include a four-star 114-bed hotel, glass-fronted flats and affordable housing, as well as a multi-storey car park and shops.

Concerns had previously been raised over the effect that major supermarkets in the area were having on independent retailers.

Cllr Mike Roberts, who is part of Rushmoor Labour group’s Stand Up for Aldershot campaign, said links between the town centre and the Westgate site were crucial.

“We need to be looking at Tesco outward rather than inward,” he said. “We are in great danger of Aldershot becoming a peripheral town if the town centre and the Westgate development does not move forward together as one.”

There was a need for urgency and leadership with the development so the scheme could gather momentum.

“I want to see the shops being filled in the town centre,” he added. “I want to see some semblance of direction from what is going on in the Galleries shopping centre, as that has been drifting on for months.”

Town centre manager Jenny Rawlings was critical of dissenting traders. “Maybe those who continually knock Aldershot have not got the town’s future at heart,” she said.

“If they want to complain they should speak to the town centre management group.”

She said that when the idea was first mooted a decade ago, public opinion had been in favour of a modern 21st century leisure complex.

“Why should people go to other places for their leisure facilities when we’ll have the Westgate centre?” she said.

Ms Rawlings added that the Westgate site would be the catalyst for further work in the town centre, including work in High Street.

Peter Gardner, Rushmoor Borough Council’s director of resources, said he was confident that the protracted legal issues surrounding the Westgate site would be finalised soon. He was optimistic that building work would begin by the end of the year.

He added: “I’m surprised at the traders’ thoughts. We have shaped the scheme to make sure it is not competing with the town centre.

“The facility will offer commercial leisure and I’m confident that it will increase the footfall to shops in Aldershot.”

Building work was  due to start this month with the demolition of the Warburg car park, but that was put back until the new year to allow shoppers more parking spaces over the festive period.

Ms Rawlings added: “I know that businesses in Union Street and Upper Union Street rely on the footfall from the Warburg car park and it is an issue that needs looking at.”