Walk down Wyndham Street in Newport and you'll be struck by the vast empty space along an otherwise residential street lined with terraced houses. If you're from the area or old enough, though, you'll remember when the site housed a Sainsbury's supermarket that served as a focal point of the community for many years.
But what once provided much-needed local amenities and jobs is no more and sadly little has replaced it despite voracious calls to do so. After 25 years serving the area the shop closed permanently in 2010 with Sainsbury's opening a new store in the city in Albany Street. Since then the vacant site has been left empty and subject to a series of false starts and shelved plans.
Mooted proposals included a mixed-use development with student accommodation, a hotel, and residential properties with permission granted by Newport City Council in early 2016. That plan never came to fruition.
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Other plans have included a potential flood defence at the site which was also ravaged by fire in 2017. In 2018, eight years after the store closed and having lain empty since, the former Sainsbury's building was demolished but there has been little other sign of movement or redevelopment of the land.
Today what lies in Wyndham Street is little more than a vast empty space of cracked Tarmac with weeds, overgrown bushes, and litter strewn around. On a recent visit around the area in October WalesOnline also reported seeing fly-tipping and rubbish including piles of discarded clothing, beer cans, and plastic bags.
In past years residents and campaign groups have called for action on the site with clean-up efforts having discovered used needles and large amounts of fly-tipping. Fear Group, which operated the site, has said in the past that it has spent hundreds of pounds on clearing the site at different times and liaising with the council on efforts to prevent access for fly-tippers and illegal dumpers.
Leon Fear from Fear Group said in 2020 that the company still wanted to see the site developed but said there were "no immediate plans for the site" due to the pandemic. “We are aware of the ongoing illegal dumping of waste on the former Sainsbury’s site in Newport city centre and have spent thousands of pounds with licensed waste carriers over the years removing waste including during the recent weeks and months throughout the pandemic," Mr Fear said at the time.
"Previous attempts at fencing sections of the site have resulted in the fencing being stolen however the site is well defined by brick walls and concrete blockades preventing vehicles entering the site and is private land with no rights of way across any part. Anyone accessing or dumping anything on the land is doing so illegally."
Mr Fear added then that the site "remains very difficult to secure from illegal fly-tippers" and that the group was in "regular dialogue with environmental control at the city council" to solve the issues there. Fear Group was contacted for further comment.
