Plans by Royal London to divide Homebase into four separate units have already had nearly 70 objections from local residents.
The landlord submitted the application last month. The Homebase store manager has said he is concerned that 34 jobs are at risk, some of which have existed for over two decades, and there is already an active Facebook campaign against the plans.
Local MP Steve Brine said: “Homebase is a really useful store. We use it a fair bit ourselves and I think a city the size of Winchester makes it a successful store.
“The City Council should have no truck whatsoever with the current landlord’s wish to quadruple the number of retail units on this site and, no doubt, quadruple their number of tenants at the same time.
“I have said for some time, the whole Winnall industrial estate area needs a strong business coordination body in the style of the Business Improvement District we have in town.”
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