New Hucknall Lidl is on the start line

The council planning committee originally approved the German retail chain’s plans to build a store on the site of Hucknall Town FC’s current Watnall Road ground back on March 17.

Since then, the has been silence on progress but Coun David Shaw, who represents Hucknall on both the district and Nottinghamshire County Council, says they are now poised to give the scheme the green light.

He said: “We are just waiting for the Section 106 agreement to be signed – by Lidl and then it’s full steam ahead.

"This is the agreement that will see a significant amount of money being spent to improve the local infrastructure.

"We are hugely supportive of the provision of additional facilities in Hucknall and the Ashfield Independent team have been proactive in securing contributions to facilitate this.”

One of the main causes for the short delay in giving the project the green light were some conditions imposed by the planning committee when they approved the scheme, that some last-minute issues be sorted out between Lidl and the council, notably concerning traffic pinch-points and financial contributions from Lidl for town-centre improvements.

It was felt though, that these would be dealt with between Lidl and council officers under delegated powers with no need for the proposal to be brought before the planning committee again.

Additionally there were some objections, most notably from Tesco, which claimed there had been inadequate assessment of the impact the store would have on town-centre trading.

It was also claimed that alternative sites – including the old Sandicliffe site on Portland Road and the Piggins Croft car park – hadn’t been explored.

However, the mood at the meeting was one in broad favour of the proposal, particularly among local residents and committee members agreed that the scheme should go ahead.

As well as the town getting a new supermarket, the project will also allow Hucknall Town to take up residence at its new home across the road off Aerial Way – a move that has been in the offing for more than 15 years.

The new store will also create up to 40 new jobs in the town.