Lidl revives new Ross-on-Wye shop bid despite criticism

The budget supermarket chain had planning permission for a new supermarket at Wolf Business Park in Ross-on-Wye rejected by Herefordshire Council.

It then appealed the decision, but inspector Philip Major said the diversion of trade from town centre retailers would have been likely to impact on more specialist shops in the town.

But now, Lidl is trying again and says it has resubmitted a planning application for a shop at the business park, off Alton Road near the A40.

Lidl said the shop would serve the needs of local residents, provide more food shopping choice for customers in the local area and create new jobs in Ross-on-Wye.

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The hybrid application, which is yet to appear on Herefordshire Council's website, will be for full planning permission to demolish the existing Wolf Business Park buildings and build a new food shop.

This will be on the northern part of the site.

Lidl also wants outline planning permission for the erection of new employment use premises to the south of the site.

The proposals also include upgrades to the access junction, and improved pedestrian facilities to encourage sustainable linked trips to the town centre, Lidl said on a dedicated website for Ross-on-Wye.

If the plans get the go-ahead this time around, Lidl says up to 40 new permanent full-time equivalent jobs will be created, and there will be multi-million-pound investment into the local community from Lidl and the Wolf family.

There could also be 60 or more new and existing jobs on the redeveloped employment site.

There will be 114 car parking spaces for Lidl, including six dedicated disabled spaces and eight parent and child spaces. Secure covered cycle storage will also be provided for 30 bikes.

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  Lidl would want the shop to be open from 8am to 10pm Monday to Saturday, including bank holidays, and 10am to 4pm or 11am to 5pm on Sunday.

  Lidl said: "Following significant consultation with the local community and Herefordshire Council, we took the decision to withdraw our original application to allow a clean resubmission that suitably addresses the outstanding matters.

  "We are extremely grateful to the local community for all the support we have received locally for this scheme. All comments received through the consultation process have been extremely helpful to us in refining our proposals."

  The original plans received 16 objections from members of the public and Morrisons, which has a shop in the town centre, and Herefordshire Council planners criticised the scheme by saying it would be detrimental to the long-term protection of the historic town centre.

  They also said Lidl failed to demonstrate why they could not use land or buildings within the defined central shopping and commercial area in Ross.

  Other grounds for refusal included the unnecessary loss of trees, road safety concerns and that it would result in the loss of employment land.