Proposed Lidl Foodstore Former Smithfield Market Sheep Pen Site, Mill Lane, Welshpool - Planning Portal Reference PP

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1 Mr J Pearson Development Management Planning Services Powys County Council Neuadd Maldwyn Severn Road WELSHPOOL SY21 7AS Lidl UK GmbH Waterton Industrial Estate Off Cowbridge Road Bridgend CF31 3PH Telephone: Bridgend.Property@lidl.co.uk Date: 26 September 2014 Dear Mr Pearson Proposed Lidl Foodstore Former Smithfield Market Sheep Pen Site, Mill Lane, Welshpool - Planning Portal Reference PP Further to our correspondence, please find enclosed a full Planning Application for the above site on behalf of Lidl UK GmbH. I have submitted the following documents via the Planning Portal to support the planning application: 1) Drawings (prepared by HTC Architects) Location Plan 1:1250@A4; Drawing No ; Proposed Site Plan 1:500@A3; Drawing No Rev L; Proposed Floor Plan 1:200@A3; Drawing No Rev C; Proposed Elevations 1:200@A3; Drawing No , Rev C; Proposed Roof Plan 1:200@A3; Drawing No , Rev A; CGI. 2) Design & Access Statement prepared by HTC Architects; 3) Retail Statement prepared by GVA Grimley; 4) Transportation Assessment prepared by ADL Transportation; 5) Travel Plan prepared by ADL Transportation; 6) Topographical Survey Drawing No /T/01-01; prepared by EDI Surveys; 7) Geo-Environmental Investigation prepared by Opus International; Registered Office: 19 Worple Road, London SW19 4JS, Registered in England No.FC017929, VAT No. GB

2 2 8) Flood Consequences Assessment prepared by RPS; 9) Ecological Assessment prepared by J W Ecological Ltd; 10) Statement of Community Involvement prepared by Lidl UK GmbH; 11) The Impact of Lidl Supermarkets on Defined Retail Centres: A Case Study Update, Main Report and Summary Report (2013) prepared by Walsingham Planning; 12) Completed Application Form; Please note that since the application has been submitted via the Planning Portal, a cheque totalling 10,010 will be sent via recorded delivery. ABOUT LIDL The Lidl strategy is to offer our customers the highest quality at the lowest prices via small neighbourhood stores serving local needs at convenient locations. We have around 1,600 carefully selected product lines of which approximately 80% are own brand. In comparison to other mainstream food retailers who normally offer between 10,000 and 30,000 lines. Offering this limited range gives Lidl immense buying power and allows us to keep our low prices whilst maintaining the quality of our range. Customers tend to shop at a Lidl store for staple items in order to ensure value for money. Lidl do not sell products such as tobacco or cigarettes or have a fresh deli counter, ensuring that customers will also shop with other, local, retailers for such items as well as for branded convenience products and more specialist services such as a pharmacy, dry cleaning, Post Office etc. In addition to our core product lines, Lidl offer a limited range of non-food special items that change on a twice-weekly basis. These range from garden equipment, furniture, DIY and clothing to electrical goods. It is very much the case that these items are sold on a when it s gone, it s gone basis, which eliminates the competition element with other retailers within a town. Our proposed store opening hours are: Monday Saturday (and Bank Holidays) - 8am 10pm, Sundays - 10am 4pm.

3 3 EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES We believe in the importance of becoming part of the community and to that end we are committed to recruiting locally wherever possible. We require up to 40 full and part-time staff within our stores and offer extensive training and excellent career prospects for our employees, ensuring that our stores are a fantastic source of employment within the community. RETAIL ASSESSMENT GVA conclude that, although the site is out of centre, it has good pedestrian links to the centre. There are no suitable or available sites that could accommodate the proposed development either within or on the edge of the surrounding centres. They maintain that the relevant policy tests for retail need both in relation to national planning policy and the local development plan have been met, that there is an identified qualitative need for the development in Welshpool and that such a development will not harm the vitality and viability of Welshpool town centre. TRANSPORTATION ASSESSMENT A transportation assessment scoping request, setting out the proposed accessibility, trip generation, access arrangements, servicing and parking provision of the development was sent to Powys County Council on 11 th July 2014 (this has now been agreed). A full Transportation Assessment is included as part of the application. DESIGN/ACCESS The new store would have a net sales area of 1,116 sqm with 65 dedicated car parking spaces, incorporating 3 disabled and 3 parent and child spaces. There is currently an existing all-movements access from Mill Lane into the site. This access will be used by the proposed development, subject to some minor modification works. The store will have a buff brick finish with Alucobond rainscreen cladding and a contrasting rendered finish on the wrap-around shop-front section of the building, to provide focus. A contemporary development will be delivered, with sleek lines providing an attractive palette of materials which will be sympathetic to the context within which the development will be situated, which includes the Smithfield Bell which has a brick and rendered finish.

4 4 In building height terms, the proposed development is single-storey, which is inkeeping with the Tesco opposite and the retention of the trees to the rear of the proposed store will ensure that the building is screened from the canal. ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY Lidl as a responsible retailer is committed to delivering as sustainable a development as possible and we pride ourselves on some pretty impressive green statistics. We were one of the very first retailers to insist on payment for carrier bags, an ethos we continue today throughout our entire European operation. Lidl operate an extensive recycling policy, ensuring that all waste cardboard and plastics generated through store operations are transported by the delivery vehicle back to the Regional Distribution Centre and recycled through a third party. Our refrigeration plant has low carbon emissions ratings and operates without the need for CFCs, which means less harm to the environment. The store warehouses and staff areas are all equipped with motion sensors and intelligent lighting systems that activate the lights only when required also helping to conserve energy. Lidl aims to reduce emissions by ensuring there is no unnecessary fuel consumption. Our initiatives to help efficiency include one delivery a day, the collection of waste products after each delivery and improvement of packaging to enable transportation of more products per delivery, thus reducing the amount of lorries on the roads. In this way, we also process all food waste from store internally, which travels back to our Regional Distribution Centre, ensuring that no packaging or food waste is stored anywhere externally on site. SUMMARY I have included a supplementary report and summary recently completed (November 2013) by Walsingham Planning titled The Impact of Lidl Supermarkets on Defined Retail Centres A Case Study Update. The study represents a useful comparable tool in an assessment of the impact of an out of centre Lidl foodstore on six defined town centres in different geographical locations and represents a retrospective assessment to quantify the impact of the development of a Lidl foodstore in both a qualitative and quantitative sense. I trust that we have supplied all the required information to allow this application to be registered as soon as possible. Should you require any clarification or additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

5 5 Yours sincerely Wendy Hurst Acquisitions Manager Encs