Estate of hundreds of homes in Canterbury gets first shop after years

An estate of hundreds of homes in Canterbury is to get its first convenience shop after years of residents going without. The under-construction 750-home Saxon Fields development on the town's outskirts has never had a shop, with the closest almost a mile away.

Now, despite traffic concerns, the site is getting a Morrisons Local. But those living in the hundreds of homes already built on the sprawling Thanington scheme are set to see the franchise’s arrival within weeks.

Canterbury City Council’s (CCC) licensing sub-committee recently met to approve a bid for the new store in Fairbrass Way launched earlier this year.

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Kubaran Tharmaraja, the franchisee who will run the shop, told the panel: “On the estate there’s hundreds of houses there and there are no shops for them, so we just want to help, we’re running a business.”

He was seeking permission to open from 7am-10pm Monday to Saturday, and 10am-4pm on Sundays, and to sell alcohol during all of those hours.

“We’ve been in the business ten years,” added Mr Tharmaraja, explaining he and his team also runs shops in Folkestone and Ashford.

CCC has “core hours” of 10am – 11pm, meaning the authority prefers licenced activity such as selling alcohol happens within those hours.

“We are asking for 7am – 10pm because if we get the licence from 8am we’d need to close the shutters and everything for the alcohol section – we’d need to cover it up,” Mr Tharmaraja explained.

“So there will be operational difficulties for us.”

During the October 23 meeting inside council chambers, Cllr Naomi Smith (Lab) asked Mr Tharmaraja: “How viable would the business be without selling alcohol?”

“it’s very difficult to run a business now even with alcohol,” the franchisee responded.

“I’ve got a Morrisons store in Ashford and with the overheads, the rent rates and the staff wages it’s very difficult at the moment – even with selling alcohol we’re struggling. The alcohol makes up a big chunk of our sales in the convenience market.”

There was only a single public objection to the licensing application, from Daniel Olsen, who lives around the corner.

“My big objection is to the actual opening hours of the store itself, I don’t have a problem with a shop that sells alcohol in the area where I live,” he told the panel.

“I moved from a relatively busy Medway in 2023 to a relatively quiet Thanington for a different period of my life and I’m concerned about the traffic of people and cars and whatnot that the shop on Saxon Fields is going to bring. I don’t have a problem with alcohol – I like a beer – my concerns are for what it could potentially turn into in that quiet part of Canterbury.”

He also argued “If you aren’t able to run a business without selling alcohol then there’s either something wrong with the business or with us.”

The unit that will host the Morrisons Local is one of several buildings in the development earmarked for commercial use, with flats above, built specifically to be a shop. Mr Tharmaraja explained that the estates developers Pentland Homes would not allow duplication of businesses into the premises – so a second convenience store could not open, nor could his one expand into a neighbouring unit.

“I had envisioned a little bakery and a little pet shop maybe possible a little garden shop there, looking back it was quite naïve and romanticising the idea of living in Canterbury,” Mr Olsen continued.

“Overall it’s for selfish reasons because I don’t want my road getting more busy with more cars more traffic more people being drawn up there.”

However, after about half an hour of deliberation, CCC’s licensing sub-committee decided to grant the application.

Chairman Cllr Mike Bland (Lab) said: “We have come to the view that we’ve heard nothing that gives us any evidence to indicate that we should object to this application.”

The new store is expected to open its doors in November.