SAINSBURYÕS has been urged to Ògo back to the drawing boardÓ before subjecting Alton to expansion plans which would merely, in the opinion of local councillors, serve to worsen existing traffic problems.

SainsburyÕs, it seems, is a victim of its own success. In Alton, according to deputy town clerk Greg Burt, the store is finding it increasingly difficult to meet demand.

Following an on-site visit, Mr Burt told The Herald: ÒThe shelves are emptying as soon as they are filled. We are told that for its size the store has one of the highest turnovers in the country but that it is simply not big enough to keep pace with demand.

ÒThe problem is that if you improve the facilities it will attract more customers which will put even more pressure on the Draymans Way store. What Sainsbury's really needs is a bigger site.Ó

Drawn up in a bid to address the issue, the company has now submitted a planning application to extend the shop floor space at the rear of the Alton store towards Maltings Close.

The resulting loss of car parking space would be made up by the construction of a first floor car park deck.

But Mr Burt said it was his understanding that, speaking in general, in order to recover loss of ground floor space it would be necessary to go up at least two decks.

Fearful of this, councillors at last weekÕs meeting of Alton Town CouncilÕs planning and transportation committee felt that a multi-storey car park was not what Alton wanted on the site.

While stressing that SainsburyÕs was regarded as a welcome asset to the town and one which it was vital to support, Paddy Mendham felt that any plans to improve customer service needed to be carefully thought through, particularly when it came to traffic management.

Councillors were fully aware, he said, of complaints from customers over lack of variety and poorly stocked shelves and, by contrast, of the need for SainsburyÕs to maintain its position as a high quality store.

With this in mind the first step, he suggested, should be to take a more objective look at the logistics of providing that service.

A recent attempt to control the use of the car park with the installation of a ticketing system had resulted in ÒmayhemÓ and yet, said Mr Mendham, parking needed to be controlled, as did the way in which goods were brought into the store.

Councillors had learned that at the moment there were often tail-backs of delivery vehicles queuing to get into the store where the goods could not be off-loaded quickly enough.

Furthermore, because of lack of space inside the store, the aisles were tight. Wider aisles, it was argued, would make it easier to restock shelves and an enlarged shop would allow for an increase in the variety of goods offered.

The challenge, in Alton, therefore was to expand the shop floor space and provide sufficient parking within the physical constraints of the existing site, but while maintaining traffic flow.

This particular application, councillors argued, would not alleviate traffic flow at the roundabout at the access to the car park; nor would it address vehicle movement within the site, either for customer and/or delivery vehicles.

On the contrary, it would generate considerable additional vehicle movement exacerbating the existing problems.

The call was, therefore, for discussions between Alton Town Council and SainsburyÕs aimed at achieving a better, more acceptable design which would enable the store to improve its service to customers without adding to the townÕs growing traffic problems.

It was a challenge which will no doubt be relayed to SainsburyÕs by project agent, Duncan Mason.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Mason told councillors that while he was not party to any long-term vision for the Alton store, the current extension plans were merely seeking to address any perceived problems and would be constrained by the physical logistics of the site.

SainsburyÕs, he assured, did not envisage a substantial increase in the number of vehicles visiting the site on a daily basis but he agreed that if there was a perceived problem then it needed to be tackled and should be discussed.