DESPITE some reports to the contrary, the latest update we are able to bring you on the new planning application for a Lidl store in Calne, is that it is still waiting to be determined by Wiltshire Council.

The new Lidl store and ten new employment units which would collectively create up to 300 new full and part time jobs for the town, was granted planning permission to be built on land to the east of Oxford Road in Calne in April 2023.

However, in May 2023, Tesco submitted an objection and asked Wiltshire Council to quash the planning permission granted to Lidl and reconsider the application as they believed the planning policy was not correctly followed in that 'the authority misinterpreted planning policy because the retail element did not accord with the allocation of the site for employment use in the neighbourhood plan' and 'the authority acted irrationally by placing undue reliance on the change to the use class despite the land being allocated for employment use in the neighbourhood plan'.

Around 4,000 members of the community actively registered their support for the Lidl development but the Pre Action-Protocol issued by Tesco led to the planning permission being quashed.

Lidl vowed to 'fight on' and resubmitted plans in August 2023. 

With previous calculated decision dates passing several times last year, Cllr Botterill told us: "This is a large-scale development and it is not uncommon in these circumstances for planning applications to take longer than the government’s timescales for determination.

“We will determine the application as quickly as possible as soon as relevant issues have been resolved.”

The lastest calculated decision date is set at 31st January 2025.

In the meantime, the online planning application shows a letter to Wiltshire Council from Martin Robeson Planning Practice acting on behalf of Tesco PLC was sent to Wiltshire Council one day before the decision due date which states: 'Bearing in mind the July 2023 quashing of the decision due to a substantive misapplication of policy by Officers and the current lack of available material for public scrutiny, this is certainly a situation where it would be unreasonable for the application to be determined other than by the Development Management Committee.' The full letter can be read here.

Full planning application - https://development.wiltshire.gov.uk/pr/s/planning-application/a0i3z00001548R6AAI/2100081ful

 

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