AGENDA JONATHAN WALKER IN WESTMINSTER
more twists than a murder mystery novel as the application went backwards and forwards, at first being informally rejected by the city’s planning committee, then approved after legal advice and then again rejected when it was realised that councillors were allowed to protect leisure businesses.
So as long as the two businesses were there, Lidl’s store could not be built.
It should therefore have come as little surprise that the businesses were given notice by the land owner and evicted, clearing the path. It was a brutal execution. Creative minds on the planning committee tried to steer Lidl towards the now vacant Tesco site, but to no avail.
At the start of last year Aldi similarly sought planning permission for a new store in Great Barr.
Residents were stumped as to why it would want to build next to a giant Asda and just a mile from an existing and expanding Aldi at the Scott Arms junction.
They must, however, see a market for it as the firm would not invest if they did not think it was viable.
Sceptics only need look at the example of the Beggars Bush junction on the edge of Sutton Coldfield where Tesco, Lidl and Aldi all have busy stores a stone’s throw from each other.
Nonetheless, the case against the Great Barr Aldi was overwhelming – one of the most cut and dried seen at Birmingham’s planning committee. They had no option but to refuse.
There were four substantial grounds: the loss of green space on the edge of the Queslett Nature Reserve, the loss of 60 mature trees, and the impact on traffic at the already-congested Old Horns Roundabout.
Planning officers also thought the store was pointing the wrong way, presenting a dull back wall to the main road.
A brief rejig of the design and some more landscaping did little to alter the planning department’s view that this would be a disaster.
So determined was Aldi that it lodged an appeal against the council which will be heard by a Government planning inspector on May 1, with a decision due later this year.
It seems the store will not take no for an answer and has been very busy chipping away at the case, details of which emerged in papers for this week’s planning committee meeting.
The offer of £145,000 compensation for the loss of green space and some investment in pedestrian crossings and road signs have weakened two of the four reasons to refuse to the point where council lawyers think they can no longer defend them.
How long before the other reasons are also tackled? Last year the council itself ordered the chopping down of a decades-old London Plane Tree in Centenary Square, arguing it was planting scores of saplings nearby.
So all Aldi needs to do is take a trip to the garden centre and find somewhere nearby to plant a few dozen trees.
Whereas the big four supermarkets are retreating from new store development, Aldi and Lidl are accelerating with a ruthless determination.
Fewer people were willing to drive long distances to spend two hours marching up and down 40 aisles