Waitrose has confirmed that it has submitted an objection to plans to build a new Lidl superstore in the Belmont area of Hereford.
The company says that it is concerned that opening a store at the Three Counties Hotel site in Belmont could drive further footfall away from the city centre, at what is already a difficult time for businesses.
A letter, shared with the Herefordshire Council Planning Committee said:
Firstplan act on behalf of Waitrose & Partners, who operate a store at The Old Market in Hereford town centre.
The Waitrose store forms part of the Old Market site, a mixed retail and leisure development which anchors the northern side of Hereford city centre, the redevelopment of which has been a long-term policy aspiration for Herefordshire Council.
The Waitrose store falls within the defined policy boundary of Hereford city centre, and Waitrose in turn form one of the ‘anchor’ stores within the development. The store commenced trading in April 2014.
We have been informed of the above application, which seeks full planning permission for the development of a new Lid foodstore in an out of centre location, on the site of the Three Counties Hotel at Belmont Road, Hereford.
The application is highly similar in scope to that which was previously submitted to the authority under application ref 221090 and subsequently withdrawn by the applicants. The revised scheme which is the subject of this application proposes amarginally smaller foodstore to that which was proposed under the withdrawn application,
and we note that the drive-thru unit which was also proposed by the withdrawn application also no longer forms part of the proposed development.
The sales area of the proposed Lid store has been reduced from 1,411 sq.m net to 1,251 sq.m net, a reduction of just 160 sq.m net, meaning that many of our concerns in respect of the previous application continue to apply.
Notwithstanding the changes which the revised application proposes, on behalf our clients, we wish to object to this application.
The modest reduction in floorspace proposed does not offset our client’s significant concerns about the potential impacts of this proposed development, which offers scope to significantly undermine the recent positive step-changes which have taken place in Hereford town centre in terms of diversifying and enhancing its retail and commercial leisure offer.
The submitted application will draw trade away from the city centre and its anchor foodstores at a time when its wider vitality and viability is compromised, and where the anchor foodstores themselves are identified through up to date evidence as under-performing.
We set out our objectionsinfullbelow. In setting these out, we makereference to the Planning & Retail Statement (‘PRS’) which has been prepared by Carney Sweeney Planning (‘SP) dated May 2023 in support of the application.
We also make reference to the Herefordshire Town Centre and Retail Assessment (Nexus Planning, September 2022) (hereafter referred to as the 2022 Retail Study) which contains a significant amount of important evidence which the Council will need to have regard to in their determination of the application, which is not captured by the planning application as it pre-dates the publication of the study.
More Details on this objection can be found on the Herefordshire Council website.
