Lidl gets the green light after planning wrangle

GERMAN supermarket Lidl has been given the go-ahead to open a new branch in Stirchley following a dramatic U-turn by city planners.

Two weeks ago, Birmingham City Council’s planning committee narrowly voted to reject the plans to knock down the Fitness First gym and bowling alley in Pershore Road and build a Lidl shop.

They argued the site was the wrong place for a food store, would add to traffic problems and that knocking down a popular gym for a food store sent out the wrong mes- sage. But officials have struggled to come up with sound policy reasons to reject the store and fear the council would be vulnerable to a costly legal appeal by the firm.

Officers suggested that improvements offered by Lidl, including a new pedestrian crossing, an upgrade to the road junction and the replacement of the shabby gym building, were significant.

They concluded: “The proposed development clearly does not offend any of the local and national retail or local centre policies.”

Cllr Tahir Ali (Lab, Nechells) said: “All we seem to be saying is that we want to protect Fitness First over and above a Lidl. I don’t think the reasons for refusal are strong enough.

“If we do this, it’s going to come back to bite us.”

But Cllr Gareth Moore (Con, Erdington) questioned Lidl’s claim that it could find no alternative sites in the area following an announcement by their main rival.

“Aldi are proposing a store elsewhere in Stirchley,” he told the meeting. “I don’t know why Lidl couldn’t have that site and compete with Aldi for it.”

However, the majority of councillors agreed that a refusal would not stand up to a challenge and voted by six to three in favour of the Lidl plan.

Aldi has earmarked the Magnet store site further along Pershore Road for their own store.

Work also started this year on the construction of the long-awaited Tesco store in nearby Hazelwell Lane.