Councillors advised to approve plans for new Lidl between Leamington and Warwick
Councillors are being advised to allow Lidl to build a new supermarket next to a major roundabout to the south of Warwick and Leamington.
The chain has already secured prior approval to demolish Europa House, the vacant Wanzl building on the edge of the Heathcote Industrial Estate, with Warwick District Council planning officers – the employed professionals – deeming that replacing it with a supermarket is acceptable.
Objectors, including Warwick Town Council, point to the loss of industrial space but the council is satisfied that reasonable efforts have been made to market the building for its current use classes without success and that it has been demonstrated that enough capacity for similar uses already exists elsewhere in the district, justifying the loss of the current use.
Further concerns were raised over highway safety, access for pedestrians and cyclists and the volume of proposed parking spaces but new pedestrian links to the site, a toucan crossing and two new bus stops are set to be secured through a legal agreement. Highways authority Warwickshire County Council and National Highways have raised no objections.
The report will be the backbone of considerations made by the district’s planning committee, the panel of councillors tasked with either signing off or saying no to the development, when it meets on Wednesday (September 16).
Even if they do vote through the plans, there is a caveat in the permission allowing senior officials to reject the proposals if an adequate legal agreement cannot be signed off within three months or after any extended time period deemed appropriate by the council's head of place, arts and economy.