THE business community will be asking for more car parking space and airing its problems over the proposed ASDA to East Devon District Council. The annual meeting for Exmouth's businesses was in uproar over the supermarket site and the linked proposed pe

THE business community will be asking for more car parking space and airing its problems over the proposed ASDA to East Devon District Council. The annual meeting for Exmouth's businesses was in uproar over the supermarket site and the linked proposed pedestrian priority area crossing the busy A376 road. Members of the Chamber of Trade and Commerce were disappointed that their suggestion that the supermarket should not exceed 26,000 square feet was ignored by the developers, ASM and ASDA. Simon Wood, secretary, said: "The chamber is happy with a 26-28,000 square feet food site. That is roughly what Asda has committed to in terms of food. "They have indicated to me the remaining 12,000 sq ft is to be taken up with clothes and house wares. "Bearing in mind there's no direct competition in Exmouth with George clothes, 35,000 sq ft is acceptable. "That doesn't mean that the size of the site is acceptable."The layout for the regeneration of the bus depot area was unveiled earlier this month and illustrated the various elements of the development scheme.The plan includes the creation of 400 car parking spaces in the area but members said this did not satisfy the town's need for parking spaces, only the store's. Representatives of the chamber will be highlighting their concerns to EDDC as part of the ASDA consultation process. Simon Bolt, ex-chairman of the chamber, said: "We can only hope they will conclude from subsequent assessment that they need a smaller shop. I am not pessimistic about the ASDA plan because we need to attract the Exeter clientele back."The chamber is also concerned about the proposed pedestrian priority area on the Marine Way roundabout, which would be in the middle of major traffic from the A376 and bus routes.Members feared for people's safety if traffic doubled.A spokesman for EDDC said: "Detailed concerns about issues such as car parking and public safety are somewhat premature, since no planning application has yet been submitted. "The district council will look at such issues as and when an application comes to us."ASDA's Alison Darling has reassured the town that the plans unveiled were not final and were shown purely to keep the community up-to-date with developments.ASM Properties plans to submit a planning application to EDDC in the autumn and will be holding a detailed public consultation prior to the submission.