Burnham-On-Sea’s Lidl supermarket looks set to extend its lorry delivery times at weekends after town councillors debated the store’s proposals.
The supermarket in Burnham’s Oxford Street has submitted a ‘Reserved Matters’ application to change a planning condition on lorry delivery times which was put in place in 2003 when the store was built.
Lidl’s deliveries on Sundays are currently allowed between 9am and 6pm – and it wants to extend them by an hour. Several residents have expressed concern about the proposed changes, saying they may lead to further relaxing of the planning conditions on the store in future, which were put in place to reduce noise in the area.
Cllr Sue Harvey told the council’s latest planning meeting: “There has been a letter of objection from a resident who pointed out that when this came up before residents hadn’t been given enough notice. Many residents feel that Lidl shouldn’t be able to extend the hours. I don’t feel they should be allowed to extend the hours on a Sunday.”
However, Cllr Bill Hancock added: “Things have moved on since 2003. We need our food deliveries, and the population has increased in Burnham and the surrounding area over that time. The extra time will allow them to get an extra delivery in – and I can’t see anything wrong at all with this. It would just be normal traffic noise – I support this.”
Cllr Peter Clayton added: “This is a tricky one. Generally, we wouldn’t normally accept any changes to conditions if it’s going to affect residents, but this is an extra hour on a Sunday. The store needs to stock up for Mondays. I don’t think an extra hour is going to do a lot of damage. I would say ‘no observations’ rather than support it.”
Cllr Julie Flurry noted that “Lidl says there would not be any more extra deliveries compared to what they do now – the deliveries would just be stretched out more over the day.”
A vote saw four town councillors vote with ‘no observations’ on Lidl’s plans, while one councillor voted in support of the changes, and one against. Sedgemoor District Council is due to make a final decision on the application.
