Councillors last night approved plans for a £7 million development, including a Lidl supermarket, on the site of a former factory at Kingsway East.
A total of 11 councillors voted to approve the application in principle, while nine voted to reject it.
The application from Lidl and I&H Brown Ltd will see a supermarket, a drive-through cafe and industrial units created on the site of the former ABB factory.
David Durie, a senior consultant with Lidl, said the development would create more than 170 jobs, including 40 at the supermarket, but admitted proposals for Costa Coffee to operate the drive-through unit were not “concrete”.
The development will also include a restaurant and pub.
Ginny Lawson from the Brooksbank Community Centre also spoke in favour of the plans and said they would deliver desperately needed jobs in the east end of Dundee.
She said: “The east end needs this. What you are voting against is jobs for people, people who are hard up. If there are other alternatives, then tell us.”
But Dundee City Council’s executive director of city development, Mike
Galloway, warned approving the application for a site reserved for
industrial use could miss out on an even greater number of jobs in the future.
He added that approving the application in principle would not
guarantee who operates the super-market or any of the other businesses proposed.
But he admitted when questioned by West End Liberal Democrat councillor Fraser Macpherson the application is the first firm expressions of interest in the site since the ABB factory closed.
Mr Galloway said: “Since the former ABB works went we have not had any formal proposals coming forward but we’ve always recognised it as being a very well-placed site, on a trunk road and close to the port.
“Certainly when marketing opportunities at the port, in either offshore wind or decommissioning, we have always been aware we have this industrial site close by.”
Several councillors, including administration leader John Alexander, Lord Provost Ian Borthwick and Labour group leader Kevin Keenan did not attend the development management committee meeting last night.
Two SNP councillors, Bill Campbell and Christina Roberts, could not vote on the application. Ms Roberts said she knew one of the deputations and so it would have been a potential conflict of interest.