Supermaket giant Aldi says residents in Highbridge have given “overwhelming support” to its plans to build a new store in the town – with over 95% supporting the scheme.
The firm’s plans to build the store on vacant land at the junction between Isleport Road and Bennett Road were first revealed by Burnham-On-Sea.com on November 15th here.
Since then, Aldi has sent out 3,049 leaflets regarding the plans to residents in the surrounding area to canvas support.
“The leaflet generated considerable interest and the project team has been very encouraged at the level of response,” says an Aldi spokesperson.
“There has been significant interest in the proposals with 530 responses. Of these, 491 respondents (95.3%) support the proposals and only nine (1.7%) are opposed, 15 (2.9%) are undecided and a further 15 did not answer the question.”
The main issue for those opposed to the plans has been accessibility. Some elderly people say the site may not be accessible for them, while others commented on traffic generation and say the area is already well served by supermarkets.
Sedgemoor District Council is currently accepting comments on the planning application – which is number 11/16/00129 – until Feburary 10th as part of its consultation ahead of a decision on whether the store gets approved.
If given the go-ahead, the new Highbridge store will comprise of 1,254 square metres of retail space, plus 337 square metre for a warehouse area, and 126 square metres for staff use. There will be 101 car parking spaces around the store.
A spokesperson for Aldi told Burnham-On-Sea.com that it hopes to create dozens of new jobs.
The firm told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “A new Aldi would create up to 40 new jobs and the contemporary building would provide an attractive gateway to the wider estate, encouraging further investment and attracting more visitors for the benefit of new and existing businesses.”
“Aldi would be Highbridge’s first discount food store, offering local people high quality products at low prices in a convenient location, so they don’t have to travel to Bridgwater or Weston-super-Mare to shop and save with Aldi.”
