HOPE FOR CAMBRIAN CENTRE

A supermarket could re-open on the site of a former shopping centre in Newport that had been due for a £90m facelift.

A plan to demolish the Cambrian Centre to build shops and a 100-metre tower was scrapped last year when developer Modus went into administration. New owners Scarborough Development Group are now considering building a supermarket on the land, believing it is more economically viable.

There have been plans to regenerate Cambrian Centre going back to 2004. Mark Jackson, managing director at Scarborough Development, said: "The food store market is understandably proving to be one of the more robust in this recession, and is a great sector in which to be investing and in which to found our new business." The Cambrian Centre used to house a Somerfield supermarket before it was closed down to pave the way for regeneration.

Welcoming the news of the acquisition Robert Carew- Chaston, director of Newport- based Hutchings & Thomas Chartered Surveyors told Wales Online :

“I’m keen to know more about Scarborough Development Group’s plans for Newport but on the face of it this is fantastic news for our city. This could well be the first sign that the private sector is now ready to act and get back into the marketplace and take up what are in the case of the city of Newport ‘oven ready’ development sites such as the one worked up by Modus for the centre of Newport."

Rosemary Butler AM stated

"I was ...glad to hear that the Modus subsidiary company which originally set out to develop the Cambrian site, has now been acquired by the Scarborough Development Group. That's another piece of good news and I hope that the Friars Walk redevelopment will also get back on track . All this, as well as the Ryder Cup in October, means that Newport is still very much on the map."