SUPERMARKET firm ASDA has urged Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman to back its plans for a £40m store in the town.

Leeds-based Asda wants to build a 49,000sq ft store on land currently occupied by Thomas Broadbent and Sons Ltd and bounded by Huddersfield ring road, Chapel Hill , Milford Street and Queen Street South.

Broadbent plans to make way for the development by transferring all operations to its site on the opposite side of Queen Street South – between Huddersfield University and the Examiner building.

Mr Sheerman has labelled the ASDA plan as a “disaster” for town centre retailers and claimed it would turn Huddersfield into a “clone town” like many others.

Mr Sheerman said the site should be developed as an educational quarter given the location of Huddersfield University and plans for Kirklees College to move to Chapel Hill.

But ASDA property communications manager Phil Bartram said Mr Sheerman was overlooking the many benefits that the new store would bring.

Said Mr Bartram: “ASDA is proposing a multi-million pound investment in Huddersfield – not something that we would do lightly – as we believe there is both a need and a desire for greater shopping choice, especially when the new offer would be close to the town centre.

“We firmly believe that an ASDA store, with ample parking located next to the town centre, will result in ‘linked shopping trips’ between ASDA and the town centre, which could potentially result in notable benefits for the existing traders.”

Mr Bartram said the new store would be given considerable autonomy to forge links with local communities and supporting local good causes, adding: “As such, I must strongly dispute Mr Sheerman’s comments linking this development with a fear around ‘clone towns’.”

He said the strength of the ASDA brand would draw in shoppers and “show that Huddersfield is open for business” as well as providing more choice and competition.

He said it would also create “substantial” jobs for people in Mr Sheerman’s constituency.

Said Mr Bartram: “In July this year, Job Seekers Allowance claimants in Mr Sheerman’s parliamentary constituency stood at 3,577 claimants – up from 2,215 in the previous July.

“JSA claimants in Kirklees has doubled over the same period from 6,495 to over 12,000.

“The ASDA store would not only safeguard many skilled local jobs at Broadbents – with the company relocating directly across from their current site – but would create up to 450 new full and part-time jobs in Huddersfield at the ASDA store itself.

“The new salaries would represent a huge amount of money newly circulating every year – money that would undoubtedly be spent in local shops and on local services, bringing economic benefits to the area.”

Mr Bartram said he hoped people would consider ASDA’s proposals in detail and take into account the “wide range of tangible benefits” rather than focus on some “rather negative claims that are perhaps more general fears than fact-based conclusions.”