BOTH House of Fraser and Primark turned down the chance to anchor Colchester Council’s long-awaited Vineyard Gate shopping centre, it can be revealed.

At different times, the shopping giants decided against moving into the long-awaited open air shopping precinct.

The scheme, which was first mooted about 15 years ago, is now back on the agenda and was cited by town centre campaigners yesterday as a reason Tollgate Village should not go ahead.

If it does go ahead, experts have warned the Colchester Council-led Vineyard Gate shopping centre would be “unlikely to proceed”.

Last year Colchester Council cut ties with the Caddick Group, which was leading the project, and has bought up land in Osborne Street, including the Emmaus shop and warehouse. But no timescale has been given for the £65 million project.

Bill Hicks QC, who is representing a number of interested parties in the appeal including Fenwick and town centre landowners such as CBRE and M&G Investments, said: “Previous proposals for the site pursued by Caddick Developments were frustrated by failure to secure the targeted anchor tenants - in one case House of Fraser, who withdrew, and in another Primark, who took the vacated BHS unit.”

He added three groups are now putting together a new 10,800sq metre Vineyard Gate scheme, which will include large retail units and smaller units for restaurants.

Mr Hicks added: “Sufficient anchor demand has been identified.

“Such a scheme is inevitably more complex than out of centre development. There needs to be confidence that good tenant demand will be maintained and that there will be satisfactory expenditure in the town centre.

“The appeal proposals would reduce expenditure and footfall and therefore rental growth. That would cause a deterioration in yields and reduced viability.

“The reduction in tenant demand would threaten both the ability to find tenants for new units, but also the terms upon which tenants would be prepared to agree.

“The scale and nature of the appeal proposals is such that investor confidence will be badly affected and Vineyard Gate would be unlikely to proceed.”