Councillors to check out plans for new Aldi store next week

Plans for a new Aldi supermarket are due to go before councillors next week, more than two years after the original plans were withdrawn.

The budget chain wants to build its fourth store in Brighton and Hove at Court Farm, at the top of King George VI Avenue, known locally as Snakey Hill.

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Plans for the site, on the northern edge of Hove, are due before the Planning Committee next Wednesday (4 September).

If approved, the store would have 1,880 square metres (sqm) of “gross floorspace” including 1,315sqm of retail supermarket floorspace and a car park with 107 spaces.

A report advises councillors to be “minded to grant” the application subject to legal agreements including a “developer contribution” of £150,000 to improve the number 21 bus route for two years.

Aldi would also be required to spend £30,000 on upgrading the neighbouring A27 Brighton bypass junction, sometimes referred to as the Devil’s Dyke interchange.

The council has received 29 objections to the planning application and 22 letters or emails in support.

Concerns include the lack of need for a supermarket, the effect of “heavy” car use and the design of the building.

One anonymous objector, whose details were redacted by the council, said: “The location of the proposed store is totally inappropriate on the main roundabout and one of the two main access points into Brighton from the A27.

“It will cause an increase in traffic congestion in Dyke Road and the surrounding feeder roads which simply cannot cope.”

Another anonymous objector, whose details were also redacted, said: “Since it is on the outskirts of the town, it is likely that most users will come by car.

“Buses are not feasible if you are going to be doing the kind of large shop Aldi encourages.

“The increase in traffic to King George VI Avenue, especially when added to the traffic from the new housing development, will completely overwhelm the roads.”

Supporters said that the plans were a good use of a brownfield site and would complement the 1,000 new homes planned in Toads Hole Valley.

One anonymous supporter said: “This area is in great need of an affordable supermarket with the closest being some distance away.

“With families under increasingly limited and stretched budgets nowadays, this will be a great asset to the local community.”

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Another anonymous supporter wrote: “The road crossings have been improved in this latest proposal and there has clearly been significant work put into traffic, environmental and other impact studies to make this work.

“With the Toads Hole Valley housing scheme now approved, almost 1,000 new homes will be built in this area and not having a supermarket next to them makes no sense.

“Reducing the journeys those residents will need to make will help alleviate any increase in traffic caused by those homes being built.”

The council’s economic development team said that it welcomed the proposals in principle because the supermarket would make use a redundant site, creating up to 50 jobs.