Sparks Fly Over New Primark at the Gyle

Bosses at the Gyle shopping centre have won their latest legal battle against Marks & Spencer over plans to build a new Primark store. The owners are trying to build premises which would allow the cut price clothes retailer to open a new branch there. Bosses at Marks & Spencer object to the new development because it breached the terms of a lease which they had signed with Gyle managers in 1990. The two sides have gone to the Court of Session in a bid to have the matter settled. On Thursday, judge Lord Tyre issued a written judgement in which he ruled it was unreasonable for Marks & Spencers to continue objecting to the proposed development. He wrote: "For these reasons I shall sustain the pursuers' second plea in law, repel the defender's second plea in law and grant decree of declarator in terms of conclusion 1.4 of the summons. Lord Tyre made his decision after hearing evidence from Andrew Cronie, the Gyle Centre manager and architect Kenneth Williamson. Lord Tyre wrote: "Their evidence was to the effect that the Primark development would be beneficial to the Gyle Shopping Centre as a whole and that the loss of car parking spaces which the development would entail would not render the shopping mall or the shared areas materially less adequate,commodious or convenient to the defender than they are at present."