Planning officers are again calling on councillors to reject Aldi’s plans for a new Crewe store despite more than 3,000 people signing a petition to support it, writes Stephen Topping.
The retailer is closing its supermarket at the Grand Junction retail park next year and wants to build the new 1,801sq m store off University Way as a state-of-the-art replacement.
Twenty-eight existing jobs would be kept on as a result of the move, while Aldi says it could create a further 20 roles if Cheshire East Council grants it planning permission for the new supermarket.
But CEC’s southern planning committee rejected the plans last November, and ahead of a strategic planning board meeting next Wednesday (June 26) where the scheme will be discussed for a second time, officers are calling on councillors to reject it again.
In a report issued ahead of the meeting, CEC officers admitted the supermarket would not harm the ‘vitality and viability’ of Crewe town centre or Haslington, but suggested Aldi had not provided sufficient reasons to explain why it could not build a replacement at Grand Junction.
The report adds the ‘principle of retail development on the site’ is not acceptable when weighed against the impact the new store would have on great crested newts – and that the supermarket would not be an appropriate use of the land, which has been earmarked for ‘employment uses’.
CEC officers said: “The development of the site would have some economic benefits and this does attract some weight.
“However, it should be noted that these benefits are likely to be less than those which would be secured if the employment allocation on the site was implemented.”
The planning application is steeped in controversy.
Aldi had launched legal action against CEC over its refusal of the scheme last November, after Cllr Joy Bratherton, Labour, did not vote because she believed she could not after calling for it to be approved a month earlier when the scheme was deferred.
A total of 3,327 people have signed a petition calling on CEC to approve the scheme, and Cllr David Marren, independent member for Shavington, is concerned that the council is about to oversee jobs being lost from Crewe.
In calling the application in to be considered by the strategic planning board, he said: “I have significant concerns that Crewe will lose a major retail employer when it vacates its site at Grand Junction Retail Park in March 2020.
“This application seeks to address that significant concern and overcome the significant impact on the public which would result from the closure of the applicant’s existing store without being replaced.”
Cllr Marren added that the ‘reputation of the council is at stake’ after it first refused to register Aldi’s second application, before the supermarket launched legal action.
In its planning statement on behalf of Aldi, agent JLL said: “Aldi’s Crewe store at Junction Retail Park will close in 2020 as a result of the lease expiring and having no opportunity to expand.
“It is no longer fit for purpose and cannot align with the standard of size and quality of offer in its other stores as part of its business format.
“No other sites have been identified therefore the University Way site provides Aldi’s only option to protect and relocate existing jobs and to continue to serve Crewe’s community, particularly to the east of the town.”
The proposed supermarket would be built with 132 car parking spaces.
To see the resubmitted plans search for 18/6389C on CEC’s planning website, or click here.
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