Tweed Bunnings’ plans to move to new spot for mega store

Bunnings wants to move its Tweed store to a new location twice the size of its current site with enough space to include a sausage sizzle. But there’s one issue raising alarm bells.

A new two-level mega Bunnings Warehouse store is being proposed for the Tweed just 600m from the hardware giant’s existing shop.

The new store would have an expected floor space of 18,200sq m, about double that of the existing space, with an underground parking lot.

Tweed Shire councillors discussed a voluntary planning agreement for the proposal at their meeting on Thursday.

The agreement would result in payments known as “trip ends” for excess traffic generation under the Tweed Road Contribution Plan be transferred from the existing site to the new site.

The store’s current Greenway Drive site and the proposed new address at 44 Enterprise Ave are owned by Harvey Norman.

Under the agreement the existing Bunnings site would be provided for a “lower intensity use”.

Councillor James Owen said he was keen to see the new store be able to facilitate a sausage sizzle again.

“I've spoken to Bunnings, they’ve said they just can’t accommodate the barbecue down there at that site anymore,” Mr Owen said.

“Hopefully we can approve this and get them relocated as soon as possible so we can get the sausage sizzle back.”

Councillor Warren Polglase said there were some concerns regarding traffic the store could generate particularly from trucks, utes and trailers.

He said the possibility of traffic lights or roundabouts had been raised.

“We should be awfully aware of the issues by traffic because there’s only one road in and one road out,” Mr Polglase said.

Mayor Chris Cherry agreed there were some concerns about the traffic in the location, however was in favour of the 100 jobs the larger store was create.

“It would have been helpful when the border was closed,” Ms Cherry said.

Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the voluntary planning agreement.

Bunnings area manager Luke Underwood said the plans for the new store were still tentative.

“We regularly review opportunities to improve our existing store network and better service local customers, but have no firm plans in place for our Tweed Heads store at this stage,” he said.

No development application has been lodged.