Second Lidl store agreed

A second Lidl store is coming to Spalding after plans for a new shop on the former Welland Hospital site were agreed.

Councillors were overwhelmingly in favour of the proposal, which will see the store built with 148 parking spaces and access from Holbeach Road.

The supermarket will include an in-store bakery, longer-style tills with dual packing, customer toilets and baby changing facilities.

A Lidl spokesman told the Free Press that the existing Lidl store in Winsover Road will remain.

“Since our current store in Spalding town centre opened, our business has experienced exponential growth in the UK, with more customers shopping at Lidl than ever before.

“In order to continue providing the best shopping experience and service for our loyal customers, it is necessary to provide them with a second Lidl supermarket in Spalding.

“We are therefore committed to investing heavily in the local economy through a new store, which will not only help to better accommodate customers travelling from out of town locations, it will also create up to 40 new jobs for the local area. It is our strong belief that a new store will be of huge benefit to the community.”

Several councillors spoke in support of the application, mostly that it was a welcome relief to be 'tidying up' the site of the former hospital and Bettinson Garage.

Coun Andrew Tennant said he was initially concerned about potential congestion problems on Holbeach Road, but conceded the point, as the county council highways department did not have a problem with the proposal. "There's no exhausting the public's appetite for supermarkets in this country," he said. "Like it or loathe it, we spend a great deal of our wages in supermarkets."

Coun Jim Astill agreed: "This area is one which looks quite desolate, but society is changing and out of town shopping is springing up all over."

However, Coun Harry Drury was concerned that the location of new store would further damage Spalding's town centre: "It is outside Spalding town centre and as a result of that, it is likely to have a detrimental effect. Not through competition, but through footfall.

"This will detract from people using businesses in the town centre. And there are also traffic issues with traffic queueing at the Twin Bridges now, especially at school times."