Lidl town plans given go ahead
Lidl have been given the green light to move into the old Safeway in Troon despite residents’ concerns about the impact on parking.
The move will see three of the units, including the Ayrshire Hospice and Savers stores, merged to form the supermarket. Both Costa and Boots will remain in their existing premises.
The supermarket chain would move into the building on expiry of the leases of the three units in 2024.
Lidl are continuing to look further ahead with future plans to extend the store, including the building of a new standalone unit for Boots, although this remains on planners’ desks for now.
The issue of parking, with the loss of 63 spaces, was the prime issue for objections.
However, the Ayrshire Roads Alliance pointed to the increase in accessible disabled bays and electric vehicle charging points. It suggested the loss of spaces was ‘not considered to be significant’.
SNP councillor Craig Mackay was one of the members of the Regulatory Panel (Planning) who raised the concerns about parking.
But he said that he believed the benefits outweighed that concern and voted in favour of giving the go ahead to the application last Thursday.
He said: “While the principle of having a new shop in a building originally built as a supermarket is quite straightforward, parking is by far the biggest concern here. Technically, the proposed number of parking spaces easily meets the requirements to serve the shop units within the site. I’m also very pleased to see more disabled spaces and electric vehicle charging bays.
“I argued that it’s a material consideration that the car park is currently also used by shoppers across the whole town centre and is at times incredibly busy.
“Lidl intend to impose a 90 minute time limit on parking which will impact on the wider town centre parking challenges.
“However, I also see an increase in turnover of spaces as a positive as it will allow more people to benefit from these prime spaces over the course of the day.
“I have always been very keen to support small independent shops and cafes in our town centre, and large multinational supermarkets don’t ordinarily sit well with me.
“But equally I know a large number of Troon residents go to Irvine or Prestwick to get their shopping, and having this additional option in Troon has a lot of potential to bring more people into the town centre, which can only be a good thing.”