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Search the Public Notice PortalTesco has once again intervened to try to prevent a new Lidl supermarket, along with a nursery and medical centre, being built on the edge of a Herefordshire town.
Last September, Herefordshire councillors unanimously backed the discount retailer’s mixed-use proposal, to go beside the roundabout where Ledbury’s Leadon Way, the A449 Ross Road and B4216 Dymock Road meet.
Tesco, which has a sizeable branch in the town, then launched a judicial review against the council’s handling of the case, and in January Judge Emma Kelly found in its favour, ruling the council’s approval should be quashed and that Herefordshire Council should pay Tesco’s costs.
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But with the case for the scheme already having been made to county officials, the council’s planning committee simply reissued its approval of it at a second meeting in April – though by a less convincing margin.
At the meeting, local ward member Coun Stef Simmons said she still had “mixed feelings” about the proposal, while acknowledging it would provide jobs and services in an expanding area of the town.
But in a report for Ledbury Town Council earlier this month, Coun Simmons, who leads the county’s Green group, confirmed that Tesco has brought a further judicial review against the decision to re-approve the Lidl bid, “on planning technicalities”.
Herefordshire Council “will be vigorously contesting Tesco’s grounds for the JR”, she wrote.
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The High Court will determine within six weeks whether Tesco has grounds and, if so, allow the judicial review to proceed, she explained, adding: “This delay is deeply frustrating and goes against the democratic will of the planning committee that has now twice approved the plans.”
A Herefordshire Council spokesperson confirmed: “A third party has since objected to the scheme and has brought a judicial review to challenge the (April) decision – the council has responded to these proceedings.”
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They added: “We understand that works are halted at this stage following the commencement of the judicial review process.
“It would be inappropriate for the council to comment in detail while legal proceedings are ongoing.”
Tesco declined to comment on the record.
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