Lidl Wetherby: Supermarket plans for Leeds town set to be decided imminently amid warning of 'adverse impact'

The town’s Mercure Hotel, off the A58, would be demolished to make way for the development, under the proposed scheme.

Planning officers have suggested the proposals be rejected when they go before city councillors next Thursday (October 19), as they’ve concluded they’d have a “significant adverse impact” on Wetherby town centre. They also say it would “undermine” efforts to build more homes in the area, as the site had been allocated for housing by the local authority. It will be elected members who will have the final say.

The scheme, put forward jointly by Lidl and Springfield Health Care, would include an 84 bed-care home, plus eight “senior living homes” for elderly citizens.

In documents attached to the planning application, Lidl said the supermarket would provide a “spacious and attractive shopping environment for local residents and visitors in a convenient and accessible location”.

The idea has divided opinion among local residents. A council report said there’d been 122 objections and 611 letters backing it, although it said the majority of supportive comments “have been submitted on a standard letter template, understood to have been circulated by the applicant”.

Writing on the council’s planning portal earlier this year, one objector claimed the benefit of a new supermarket “is limited”, adding: “We already have Morrisons, Aldi, Co-op and Sainsbury’s besides the local food shops. For Wetherby town centre to survive, it is vital that the independent shops are allowed to continue on a level playing field.”

One person writing in support of the application said: “Another supermarket is definitely needed with this ever-growing community. “I don’t see a problem with access to the site. It’s on the edge of town that can be accessed easily both by foot or car.”

The Mercure has been used this year to house Afghan refugees, according to the council report, though all have now moved out into alternative accommodation.

The proposals come a decade after plans for a Sainsbury’s on the same site were refused.