Tesco has scuppered Lidl’s plans to provide 260 additional jobs next to a store by causing a two-year delay in which the discounter’s development partner walked away.
The proposed mixed-use scheme in Calne, Wiltshire, received planning permission in 2023 but was delayed after Tesco launched a legal challenge.
The store opened earlier this year, but because the delay cost Lidl its partner the 260 additional jobs have yet to be delivered for the town. A 4.1-acre site next to the store, intended to house 10 employment units totalling 40,000 sq ft, is now up for sale as land.
The scheme was intended to provide up to 300 jobs, consisting of about 40 at the store and the rest at the 10 units, which were to be industrial premises and trade counter outlets.
Tesco succeeded in having Wiltshire Council quash its initial approval after arguing the retail element of the plan did not fall within the types of employment sites that should be provided under the relevant planning policy. The plans were approved again in February last year.
It is understood securing a new developer for the employment units is proving challenging, with the site having been actively marketed for a number of months by estate agent Carter Jonas.
The case is an example of how Tesco’s objections are disrupting more than just Lidl’s own store plans as the discounter increasingly proposes mixed-use schemes in pursuit of approval.
The country’s biggest supermarket was also recently criticised for blocking plans for a new nursery and medical centre along with a Lidl store, while making Ledbury Council in Herefordshire pay its legal costs. Tesco last month brought a second judicial review against Herefordshire councillors’ approval of the proposals, having previously succeeded in getting a similar decision quashed while recovering costs. The High Court is now set to determine whether Tesco has renewed grounds.
Ledbury Town Council’s Green Group lead Stef Simmons said it was “deeply frustrating” and “against the democratic will of the planning committee that has now twice approved the plans”.
Planning objections from rivals are a common hindrance to the opening plans of supermarkets. In 2022, The Grocer revealed 37 proposed new Aldi stores across the country were being held up by objections from a number of competitors.
However, Tesco has frequently been in the spotlight for its interventions, which have presented a headwind to the expansions plans of Aldi, Lidl and M&S.
Tesco said it did not object to the vast majority of planning applications submitted by competitors. It said any objections it did submit were only ever based on material planning considerations and never on the basis of loss of trade or to delay a competitor’s plans.
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