Lidl aims to open new Spalding supermarket this year

Ground preparation has started on the site of the proposed Lidl supermarket in Spalding, which is due to open by the end of the year.

Metal barriers have gone up in Holbeach Road, where the entrance will be to the former Welland Hospital site.

A spokesman for Lidl said this week: "To provide an update, there’s some preparation work currently taking place on site, in anticipation of construction officially starting in March, with a view to opening by the end of the year."

In September 2017, when Lidl's plans went to the district council, the supermarket said it would keep its Winsover Road store and the new premises would be an addition.

This week Lidl said: "We can confirm that this store will be in addition to our other Spalding store, on Winsover Road."

Plans for the new supermarket were opposed by four corner shop traders, who organised a petition, but the application was passed by South Holland District Council last July.

A further planning application was submitted in December seeking changes to the original plan, and these will include site entrance improvements, landscaping and boundary treatments. This application is so far undecided.

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

It will have 2,123sq m of floorspace and provide 148 parking spaces with five for the disabled and eight family spaces.

The supermarket says the store will create up to 40 new jobs.

In 2017 Lidl said it needed to build a new store because its business had seen "exponential growth" in the UK since its Winsover Road store opened.

A spokesman said then: It is our strong belief that a new store will be of huge benefit to the community.”

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