Supermarket chain pulled Perth plan after council questioned need for more stores in the city
dailyrecord.co.ukA discount supermarket chain withdrew a planning application to build a new store in Perth after a council department questioned the need for it, the PA has learned.Lidl decided to withdraw its application to form a foodstore on empty farmland next to McDiarmid Park on Crieff Road late last year after receiving what it termed as “initial feedback” from Perth and Kinross Council about the proposal.It was unclear what feedback the German retailer had received from the local authority at that time as it had not published any of the comments its internal departments had made on the proposal by the time it was dropped.This contrasted with the council’s handling of a different but similar application from Aldi to form a supermarket in Milnathort for which it had at that time published all comments made on it by internal consultees such as its environmental health and development plan teams.PKC has now retrospectively published the comments its internal departments made on the Lidl application which show its development plan team raised several concerns about the proposal.The department said figures put forward by Lidl in a retail impact assessment (RIA) suggesting the city needs another supermarket were “significantly different” to figures worked out six years ago.The team also noted the proximity of a number of other large foodstores in the local area including several said to offer “discount” priced goods and questioned the need to provide another one.They also pointed to the fact the site is currently allocated for housing in the council’s latest approved local development plan.Their comments on Lidl’s proposal said: “The Perth and Kinross Town Centre and Retail Study 2016 indicates spare capacity within the Perth Area
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