Frozen food giant submits plans for new store on vacant Longbenton land

FARMFOODS has submitted plans for a new near-2,000 square metre shop in Longbenton.

The frozen food giant has proposed plans to North Tyneside Council to build the new store on undeveloped land west of The Boulevard Shopping Centre.

Farmfoods currently occupies a unit in the shopping centre, but intends to move over to the new store, pending planning approval.

Farmfoods states the shop would be open from 8am to 10pm, Monday to Saturday. Sunday opening hours proposed are 10am to 4pm.

According to documents supplied to the local authority, the move will create more jobs while accommodating all the employees at the current site. The land had been previously put aside for any potential future expansion of The Boulevard Shopping Centre in 2002.

In February 2016, North Tyneside Council approved plans for Aldi to build a new 1,615-square-metre shop on the site.

A council report into the application concluded Aldi’s application would be “a positive form of development” for Longbenton and would “enhance” the area to the benefit of residents.

The council’s previous report concluded: “The development is considered acceptable in terms of the principle of the development, impact on the environment, local amenity and the highway network”.

However, the Aldi was not subsequently built. Tyne Ecology was commissioned by Farmfoods to assess the ecological impact of the proposals back in October 2022.

The report found that the amount of potential habitat loss would require potential offsite mitigation.

A date has not been announced for a decision on the application.