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Home Sheerness News Article
Work on a new multi-million pound supermarket is nearing completion, but its opening date has been delayed.
Plans for a new Aldi in Sheppey were approved by Swale’s Council Planning Committee in December 2022.
Discount spends £9 million
in the structure of a branch at Neats Court in Queenborough and paintings of the structure began last year.
The German company announced last fall that the store would open in April.
However, the store has now proven that this is the case.
An Aldi spokesperson gave an explanation for the reason for the delay, but said a new opening date would be revealed soon.
After all, when it finally opens, the existing Aldi in downtown Sheerness will close its doors and is expected to be replaced by Home Bargains.
New drone footage appears to show that the Neats Court branch is at a complex stage.
The main construction is complete, while painting continues on the road and parking lot.
Once completed, up to new jobs will be created.
A total of 30 workers are expected to be relocated from the Sheerness workshop.
Neats Court will be a third larger than the existing facility with 134 parking spaces, 59 more than at Sheerness.
New links for bicycles and pedestrians will also be provided.
Aldi began talks with the council about a new store in 2017.
It unveiled its plans in June 2019 after claiming that its 15-year-old Sheerness branch between Pepys Avenue and Millennium Way “no longer has compatibility for its purpose. “
Despite receiving the green light in November 2020, the structure was delayed when rival Tesco saw the authorisation cancelled in the High Court the following October.
At the time, Aldi had already launched its Sheerness on Millennium Way for £2 million.
The council was due to reject plans resubmitted in November 2022 after plan manager Paul Gregory said the existing store would have a negative effect on the city.
Aldi warned the council that its current site was too small and would be closed even if its plans for the new store were rejected.
Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson said: “The rejection of Aldi’s application, which by the way has already been approved once, will have an effect on employment and the wider Sheppey community.
He added that it would be “illogical” because the store had made it clear that it would be leaving Sheerness and that Home Bargains would have a “positive impact” on the city and the island “as a whole. “
In December 2022, councilmembers voted 14 to one to authorize the newly submitted plans.
Speaking online about its upcoming opening, one user said: “Tesco has had a monopoly and now, thankfully, more and more things are under construction.
“I’ve been on the island for 44 years and I couldn’t be happier. “
Meanwhile, rival Lidl had plans to open a new store in Cowstead Corner in January.
It is understood that the budget supermarket will soon present an update of its proposals for Sheppey.
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