Ancient tollhouse demolished to make way for supermarket
An ancient tollhouse will be demolished after plans for a new supermarket were approved.
The new Aldi will create 40 new jobs in Oswestry - but will see the Gate House knocked down to make space for the entrance to the shop's car park on Shrewsbury Road.
Councillor Sandy Best, from Oswestry Town Council, said the building was one of main tollhouses that had been part of Thomas Telford's route to Holyhead.
"I've done everything I can to protect this building - we tried to get it listed with English Heritage and we've appealed to the Secretary of State to get it protected - but nothing has worked," she said.
"The decision did not go to planning committee. I believe the officers thought that the committee had had the chance to see the application and they took the decision.
"I tried to check with the Secretary of State to see how the appeal was going and it was still in a pile on his desk waiting to be read. What's especially frustrating is that while we're waiting for a decision on that the Gate House has no protection, so it could be knocked down and then the decision be made that it should be saved, but it will be too late then.
"We have already lost six of the tollhouses in this area, including two in Oswestry itself. This building is of high historical value. If we lose this we will contribute to the erosion of our visual, physical history."
Oswestry Town Council had not objected to the plans, but had asked that Shropshire Council negotiate with Aldi to retain the Gate House.
More than 70 letters of support had been submitted for the new shop with 10 objection, mainly centering on the loss of the Gate House and potential traffic issues.
The new shop will be built on Shrewsbury Road next to New Fairholme care home on the edge of Maesbury Road Industrial Estate. It will be the second Aldi store in the town operating alongside an existing shop in Oswald Road, which bosses say is operating at full capacity, and will create 25 full-time and 15 part-time jobs.
Representatives from Aldi visited the town council last year when they told councillors that a heritage expert had inspected the building and said that there was so little of the original left, there was little chance of it being accepted for listing.
They said that if Aldi was given planning permission for its new store, it would install an interpretation board with historical photographs and information about tollhouses to mark that one had stood on the site.
Planning officers confirmed this idea by making it a condition of planning permission that there should be some sort of record on the site about the Gate House which should be installed within three months of the shop opening.
Another condition in the planning permission states the new building will only be able to be used by a discount food store operator and shall not be used for any other retail, including food retail.
