Ashby de la Zouch Town Council has made a series of objections to the planned new Lidl store in Resolution Road.

Last month, the budget supermarket chain applied to move into the site currently occupied by the now disused Ashfield House building.

But the area is already home to the Tesco and Aldi stores, with B & M and Marks and Spencer a short distance away.

Councillors had already raised concerns over the need for Lidl and the fact that it would add further traffic problems to an already congested area.

Ashby Civic Society has also objected, calling the scheme 'foolish'.

Ashby Town Council's planning committee met last Monday to discuss the planning application.

There was also a suggestion that Lidl consider building the supermarket on the new Money Hill site - as the company mistakenly believes that the area has been completely allocated to housing.

Councillors objected to the plans on five grounds, and issued a number of recommendations if planning permission is granted by North West Leicestershire District Council

How the Ashby branch of Lidl could look. Image: Lidl

A consultation submitted by Ashby Council says:

• The area around Resolution Road and Nottingham Road is already severely congested, particularly at peak times, and cannot cope with additional traffic.

The Resolution Road roundabout access to the Tesco store and filling station, which is proposed to also provide access to the new supermarket for both customers and HGV delivery vehicles, is already often completely blocked by tailbacks of traffic from the Nottingham Road traffic lights, preventing exit from Tesco.

The applicants accept that the proposed development would generate a considerable number of additional visits to this area, but even if it did not, the addition of another frequently used junction onto this roundabout would severely exacerbate the current congestion.  

• The Town Council is concerned about the added noise and disturbance to local residents, living behind the development. This is a significant change of use from offices to a busy supermarket with many more visitors and ancillary equipment.

• Inappropriate change of use – The proposal contravenes Local Plan Policy which states that this site is reserved for light industry, office, general industrial, storage and distribution uses.

Other uses will only be permitted if they are small scale and ancillary or maximise job outputs and are compatible with nearby uses. This is not small scale or ancillary and does not maximise jobs.

Image: Dreamstime.com

The forecast jobs at the site would be approximately half the number that were associated with the current office building on the site which is proposed for demolition.

There has been no evidence presented to demonstrate that the current building has been actively marketed for continued use as office space.

• Only two alternative sites have been considered. The second site, at Money Hill, has wrongly been dismissed as already having permission for residential development, which is not the case. That site, located on the Ashby bypass, is allocated in the Local Plan for employment use (not excluding retail) and no planning applications for its use have yet been submitted.

That site would not require the demolition of a perfectly good, award-winning and relatively new office building and the associated release of a great deal of embedded carbon and would not have the other negative impacts of this site in terms of traffic congestion and detriment to neighbourhood amenities.

• The Neighbourhood Plan Policy states: "Development proposals for retail uses, will be supported where they are of a scale appropriate to the character of Ashby de la Zouch and the role and function of its Town Centre.

Image: Lidl

" This application does not meet this criterion as it will have a significant impact on the footfall into the town centre, estimated by the applicants themselves as at least £1m per annum. 

If the planning application is granted Ashby Town Council has requested a number of contributions towards improved local infrastructure, including:

• Pay towards a safe cycle route into the town centre for use by customers and staff

• Highway improvements to reduce congestion e.g. offset roundabout on Nottingham Road etc. 

• Financial contribution towards town centre improvements to encourage footfall in the town centre - the council says that Aldi contributed £50,000 with Tesco contributing a similar amount. 

Councillors at Monday's meeting made it clear that the arrival of Lidl was not necessary.

Cllr Carl Benfield said: "Does the town really need another retail outlet?

"We're trying to limit our carbon emissions, and Lidl is taking over another building, which will be demolished."

Cllr Pejman Zamani said he was concerned about another supermarket taking footfall away from the town centre.

But Cllr Murrae Blair-Park added: "My objection is that it's a daily episode that traffic is backing up getting into Ashby at peak times, we can't circulate the traffic quickly enough.

"We have a lot of congestion, at the weekend you can't move, we're just going to add to that."