WHILE more than 80 per cent of those who took part in a recent engagement exercise run by supermarket giant Lidl, which wants to build a new store in Ross, were supportive of the bid, Ross Town Council has expressed its strong objections to the scheme.

Speaking at a recent planning and development sub-committee, Councillor Julian Utting warned the planned supermarket would create a ‘significant increase’ in traffic at St Mary’s Garden Village and the Over Ross roundabout - a key link between Ross and the A40, A449 and M50 with a possible extra 2,500 car journeys a day created by shoppers.

Councillors also felt the application flew in the face of the Ross-on-Wye Neighbourhood Development Plan Policy E2, which states that edge-of-centre and out-of-centre retail development will normally be resisted. Town councillors also expressed concerns over the loss of land for housing.

Cllr Linden Delves said he feared the supermarket could ‘suck huge amounts of money’ out of the town centre with a retail impact assessment produced by Lidl suggesting a potential reduction in turnover of up to 16 per cent for town centre businesses

Speaking earlier this year Lidl’s regional head of property Rhydian Griffiths said: “This is an important step to delivering our first ever store for Ross-on-Wye, and we encourage residents to share their views throughout the planning process to help secure the store they need.”