Lidl store plans next to Shrewsbury Town FC move a step closer
Planning officers have backed Lidl's bid for a new supermarket in Shrewsbury.
The budget chain has moved a step closer to winning its store war with Waitrose after officers supported the company's bid to build a new supermarket next to Shrewsbury Town Football Club's stadium in Oteley Road.
Shropshire Council's central planning committee will consider the plans on Thursday.
Waitrose has had approval since 2012 for a nearby shop to cater for 900 planned houses in the area. But the company has said that approval for the Lidl site would "seriously jeopardise" the chances of their plans going ahead.
A report compiled by the council's planning officer Karen Townend said: "Waitrose has threatened to pull out of developing the site. This is a business decision for Waitrose to make and not one which should influence the current planning application.
"If Waitrose was to pull out of the site there is no evidence to show that the local centre would not be built, the site could be taken on by another retailer or a smaller unit provided."
councillors should not consider Waitrose's threat to pull the plug on its proposal for a nearby store when making their decision.
The Waitrose proposal, which has had planning permission since 2012, was considered to form part of a "local centre" for the planned 900 houses on Oteley Road.
But the company has said that approval for the Lidl site would "seriously jeopardise" the chances of their plans going ahead.
Mrs Townend's report states: "Waitrose have threatened to pull out of developing the site. This is a business decision for Waitrose to make and not one which should influence the current planning application.
"If Waitrose were to pull out of the site there is no evidence to show that the local centre would not be built, the site could be taken on by another retailer or a smaller unit provided."
As part of the application Shropshire Council has also recommended approving plans to vary the 106 planning agreement on the site. The current 106 lists the land Lidl plan to build on as for community use. Under the new proposal the club's current training pitch will become a community pitch under the management of Shrewsbury Town in the Community.
Shrewsbury Town plan move their training ground to a site in Sundorne.
In total there were 123 letters written supporting the application and 36 objecting.
Despite being recommended for approval by the council it has attracted objections from Sport England, and Shropshire Council's Highways department.
Shrewsbury Town's Chief Executive, Brian Caldwell welcomed the news and said he hoped Lidl would be able to start work as soon as possible, and that they would be able to gain approval for their new training facilities.
He said: "From the Lidl point of view, we'd start work straight away. Hopefully they'd look to start in January and can do what work they can do before Christmas getting the site prepared.
"From our point of view we want to move the training to Sundorne, the application is live and has been under process since November when we bought the building so we're hoping to get the buildings up there in the next couple of weeks."
