Hope and jobs in store for Ashington

The two developments will provide major impetus for long-running efforts to regenerate the local economy after the decline of coal mining.

Councillors hope the Asda investment will be a catalyst for a brighter future for the town centre.

Wansbeck Council's regulatory committee approved the supermarket's application for a 53,000sqft store, which will redevelop the site where Ashington football club played for 100 years.

The company says it will create at least 200 full- and part-time jobs, in addition to the 300 staff who will transfer from its present shop in nearby Lintonville. Plans are in the pipeline to develop a retail park on the site of the current Asda store.

Regulatory committee chairman Coun Ray Butler said: "The jobs it will bring are important, but I hope that more shops and businesses will also be attracted to the town in the wake of this decision.

"The new unitary authority which will become operational next April will also receive substantial sums of money as a result of the sale of Portland Park and I hope a lot of this comes back into Wansbeck."

Asda has agreed to help fund initiatives to make Ashington more attractive to shoppers, including improving gateways to the town and promoting the centre.

It is also giving £100,000 towards the move of Ashington FC to its new ground at Hirst Welfare.

The application now goes to the Government Office for the North East to be considered in relation to overall retail developments in the region.

Asda property communications manager Phil Bartram said: "In uncertain economic times, our plans represent a £25m investment in Ashington and will generate at least 200 jobs for local people."

College plan

MOVING the 4,000-student Northumberland College to central Ashington will help the town's economy and student performance, it is said.

College bosses plan to invest £50m taking the campus from the town's outskirts to seven acres at the old Ashington Hospital site.

Subject to planning consent, the college aims to start work next year and open the three-storey building in September 2011.

Wansbeck councillors will be recommended next week to signal their support for the scheme, but refer it to the Government as a departure from the local plan, which allocates the hospital land for housing.

A report to the regulatory committee on Thursday says the loss of 137 homes planned there will be more than compensated for by plans for 337 houses at the present campus in College Road.

Regeneration agency Senntri says the college move will make a major contribution to town centre regeneration by putting money into the economy and making the area more attractive for business, as well as improving educational attainment.

The county council says it is important to retain the college in Ashington as part of regeneration efforts.

Unveiling the plan this year, college principal Rachel Ellis-Jones said: "We are proposing a new, world-class building in the heart of Ashington for the next 50 years, which will kick-start the town centre's regeneration and provide the students with the best facilities they could imagine."