Havant Lidl: ‘Flagship’ budget supermarket could soon be built on cleared land near B&Q

Lidl Great Britain Limited has applied to Havant Borough Council for planning permission for a “new larger, and more sustainable store format”, said agent Alistair Thornton of Simply Planning. His cover letter said: “This shall be a flagship store and first of its type in the south”.

The new 2,185 square metre Lidl shop will be built on land west of the B&Q in Purbrook Way just off the A3(M) at Bedhampton – despite the chain already having a supermarket less than a mile and a half away in Leigh Park as well as one in Waterlooville.

The site was cleared in anticipation of the development as it has outline planning permission for a supermarket, “largely similar to the application proposals”, documents said. The proposal is for a new supermarket, car parking, access, landscaping and engineering works but is now different from the initial planning permission so new consent is required.  

The agent’s cover letter said the main change is to the footpath which had to be altered due to “un-movable utilities”. Documents said the size of the shop will be just over 1,500 square metres set in the 1.27 hectares site, creating 40 full-time jobs.

Mr Thornton said the multi-million-pound investment from the budget supermarket chain will benefit the area by reducing “travel costs of residents accessing comparable discounted food retailing”. The applicant also understands that the site was used to deposit spoil material in association with the adjacent B&Q development.  

If approved by planners, the new supermarket would have 113 car parking spaces plus six disability spaces, 10 parent and child spaces and two active electric vehicle charging spaces. There are also five motorcycles and 12 cycle spaces proposed.

When looking at sites for this new shop, Lidl needed to check for other suitable sites in the Havant and Waterlooville area – a ‘sequential test’ as part of the planning process. 

Lidl looked for a comparable site in Havant and Waterlooville town centres, Leigh Park district centre along with Bedhampton, Middle Park Way, Crookhorn and Purbrook local centres but found the Purbrook Way site still appropriate. This is despite the former Waitrose supermarket in Waterlooville carpark remaining empty.

The impact of traffic and travel was revisited, the planning and retail statement said, and it was found to be the same as the initial application which seeks to promote sustainable modes of travel to the site.

A pedestrian/cycle path network is proposed to connect the site to the road and footpath infrastructure, the design and access statement said. Lidl is a German company, founded in the 1930s with 800 UK shops, boasting an architectural single-storey design. Its business model is to provide a limited range of staple foods and convenience goods to meet primarily ‘main’ shopping needs, according to the design and access statement.

This application has not yet received any public comments whereas the outline planning application received 52 comments from the public of which 16 objected, the main point of contention being the new store’s proximity to the Leigh Park Lidl.

Havant borough planners have an internal target date of July 23 to decide on application APP/24/00330.