Supermarket to close today for revamp including self-service tills

A supermarket is due to close for three weeks for a refurbishment that should include the installation of self-scan checkouts.

Aldi, in Carlton Terrace, Portslade, is scheduled to shut at 6pm today (Saturday 29 April) and to reopen at 8am on Thursday 18 May.

The budget store is expected to be easier to navigate after the revamp, with wider aisles and better signage.

Store bosses said that this would also include a set of “easy to see” freezers by the far wall.

Earlier this year, Aldi applied for planning permission to upgrade existing machinery and fit new plant equipment at the back of the store for heating and refrigeration.

The company said: “These works are required to improve the visual appearance of the food store and the efficiency and environmental performance of the existing plant on the supermarket building.”

Bosses said that they wanted to remove the existing plant and replace it with bigger units and five air source heat pumps on the southern side of the building.

These would be in a secured outside area which would not be open to the public.

On the northwest side of the building, Aldi wanted to add a small new condenser unit in an area where there was currently no external plant or machinery of this type.

Some neighbours, notably those living in the 14 flats above the store, were concerned about noise from the proposed machinery, with at least one of them lodging a formal objection.

The neighbour said: “Sound insulation between the store and the flats is currently inadequate, with noise from tills, announcements and doors in the store disturbing daily life and those working from home in the flats above.

“Aldi regularly opens the store shutters well before the hours they are allowed to and take deliveries much later than they are meant to so noise disruption impacts on sleep for everyone.

“Although Aldi claims that most of the work will not be noisy, we are aware that this is probably not true and that all noise will be magnified in an empty store.

“We (the residents and leaseholders) had a virtual meeting with representatives of Aldi at the end of November and expressed our concerns but have had no written confirmation of how they will mitigate.”

A Brighton and Hove City Council report said: “The proposed plant would not be likely to result in a harmful increase in noise levels.”

In granting planning permission last month, the council imposed a condition aimed at ensuring that noise levels were comparative to or quieter than the background noise.

Earlier this month, the nearby Sainsbury’s reopened its petrol filling station after work on the underground storage tanks.

One customer said that the petrol station still never seemed to have super unleaded – better suited to some older cars – and the air machine for pumping up tyres was still not working.

The forecourt of the West Hove branch closed last month and was excavated before the site was made good and the fuel pumps brought back into action in the past fortnight.