With the decision on their plans to demolish a former gym and their existing store to replace it with a new larger store having been deferred twice, Lidl has now submitted revised plans.
Further to the meeting of the Northern Planning Committee on February 14th, Lidl has made some revisions to the proposed development at Summerfields Village Centre to address issues raised by planning committee members.
The amendments to the store proposals will see a 7.5% reduction in the gross floorspace of the proposed new building, from 2,480m2 to 2,292m2, which has been achieved by re-arranging the non-sales floorspace, revising the position of the storage freezers and reducing the scale of the storage area and the sales area.
The proposed sales floorspace has been reduced from 1,655m2 to 1,577m2 (4.8%), which has been achieved by reducing the width of the shopping aisles by approximately 28cm each.
Additionally the number of car parking spaces has been increased from 136 to 155 spaces in total, which has been possible by the reduction in the floorspace.
The new scheme also includes moving the location of the trolley bay so that it is on the store shopfront, away from the residential boundary with properties on Tiverton Drive and reducing the height of the roof on the eastern elevation adjacent to properties on Tiverton Drive.
If approved the existing store will continue to trade whilst the former Energie Fitness Club building is demolished and the new store building is erected. However, it will be necessary to close the existing store prior to the opening of the replacement to allow for the existing store to be demolished and replaced by customer car parking. It is anticipated that there will be a period of up to 8 weeks between the existing store closing and the replacement store opening.
Lidl plans to create up to 20 new jobs at the new store which will also feature facilities such as an in-store bakery, longer-style tills with dual packing facilities and customer toilets.
Lidl UK's Regional Head of Property, Stuart Jardine, commented: "Following the deferral of the previous planning application for a second time, we have looked at the plans again and made some adjustments in order to address the issues raised by the planning committee in February.
Stuart Jardine added: "Revised store plans have now been submitted to Cheshire East Council for their consideration. We have listened to the comments made by local residents and the members of the planning committee and reduced the size of the development. We've also increased the number of car parking spaces. Our existing Lidl store is no longer able to meet the demands of our growing customer base. We have tried to improve the existing store over the years, but the current site is simply too restricted. We want to stay serving our loyal customer base in Wilmslow and the proposed new modern store will enable us to do that long into the future, and greatly improve the shopping experience for our loyal customers."
Should planning approval be achieved, the new store is expected to open in early 2020.
The revised plans can be viewed on the Cheshire East Council website by searching for planning reference 17/3208M. The deadline for submitting comments is 30th April and a decision is expected by 11th May.
Comments
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Having said all that, I still feel that there are enough grocery stores in the area for shoppers without this major store extension.