March 9, 2023 12.00 pm This story is over 26 months old

Aldi supermarket given go ahead for Holbeach

41 new jobs created
Plans for the Aldi in Holbeach.

Supermarket giant Aldi’s plans for a new supermarket in Holbeach have been given the green light.

The store was given permission for the new build on the former council depot on Fleet Street during a meeting of South Holland District Council’s planning committee on Wednesday.

There had been a last ditch objection from competitors Tesco who accused the plans of having “inadequate” assessment  around the location.

It also claimed that there had been a lack of investigation into the impact and vitality of existing centres.

However, Aldi accused Tesco of being late and raising no planning considerations that hadn’t already been looked at.

Officers said the recommendation to approve remained unchanged following the objection.

“The Aldi supermarket application would bring with it approximately 41 direct jobs both part time and full time, as well as the number of indirect jobs that will be created, as well as those during construction,” said external planning consultant Sam Dewar.

Richard Thompson, property director at Aldi, said the supermarket had the support of nearly 97% of respondents during a survey in September 2022, with nearly 2,000 people taking part in the consultation exercise.

He said the business had worked with planning officers and others to ensure the plans were acceptable.

“The attention to detail and collaborative approach with your officers on this project has resulted in a scheme which Aldi and the local community should be rightfully proud of,” he said.

The scheme was passed unanimously by councillors.

Praising the application Councillor Andrew Woolf said: “This looks to be a complicated application, which really isn’t complicated, I welcome this with open arms.

“We’ve got a site that’s doing absolutely nothing and a leading retail supermarket that wants to come and occupy it.

“Holbeach is a growing town – we should know, we pass a lot of the applications – so why should there not be more competition?”

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