CHATHAM
Aldi secures approval for new store in Maidstone Road, Chatham, despite dozens of objections
Supermarket chain Aldi has been given the go-ahead for a new second store in Chatham.
The 1,912 sqm store will be built on part of the former St John Fisher School site in Maidstone Road – just a five-minute drive from its existing branch at Horsted Retail Park.
As part of the plans, the German retailer will provide 104 parking spaces and a new vehicular entrance from Maidstone Road.
It also says the store will represent a £7 million investment into the local economy, creating around 40 new jobs.
Medway Council’s planning committee approved the plans last Wednesday (19 November), passing with ten votes for and three against.
But the application will now be referred to the Secretary of State to decide whether it should be ‘called in’, after Sports England objected over the loss of a disused playing field on the site.
The council also received almost 200 responses from the public, including 155 letters of support and 42 objections, as well as a petition signed by over 170 people.
Concerns were raised about the design, increased traffic and impact on businesses in Chatham town centre and Scotteswood Avenue, which is classified as a neighbourhood centre.
Speaking at the meeting, Fort Pitt ward councillor Smitha Campbell called supermarkets “great” but said “there is just no need for an Aldi in this location.”
She said: “It is a very residential area, there are corner shops that serve this location quite adequately [and] there is an Aldi a few minute’s drive up the road.
“It’s just really hard to imagine this is the best use of this land.
“There seems to be a coordinated campaign of a lot of emails that have gone to councillors on the planning committee, [which] seems to be coordinated by Aldi.
“It’s not very neighbourly,” she added, saying, “it’s now how organic planning committee applications should be looked at.”
But Medway Council leader Cllr Vince Maple, representing Chatham Central and Brompton, took a very different view and voiced his support for the plans, calling it a “genuinely balanced application.”
He said: “If this was an application for Aldi in Chatham High Street, I suspect there would be very few people opposing it.
“The vast majority of residents I’ve spoken to are supportive of this application for a couple of reasons.
“One, around job opportunities,” he said, continuing, “and secondly the access particularly for those who don’t have a car. Having this close by to them will be important.”
As part of the planning permission, Aldi has agreed to pay developer contributions, known as Section 106, towards local improvements in Maidstone Road.
This will include £30,000 to upgrade two bus stops and £20,000 for improved walking and cycling infrastructure.
A further £79,702 will also go towards a new Play Zone at Maidstone Road Sports Ground, which is a type of multi-sports outdoor facility.
It is not yet known when the Secretary of State will respond to the planning committee’s approval.
Aldi has been approached for comment.
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New Aldi store. At the Council meeting I understand it was stated that traffic levels on Maidstone Road would be similar to when the site operated as a school. In my view, this understates the likely impact of the proposed Aldi store on Maidstone Road. A supermarket of this scale will inevitably draw in a much higher volumes of traffic than the former school. With 104 parking spaces, the site has the theoretical capacity to generate up to 2,496 vehicle visits per day, assuming a 30-minute turnover over a 12-hour trading period. While this represents a maximum scenario and is unlikely to be reached in practice, it nonetheless shows the scale of potential traffic on an already busy A-road. Even if only 25% of that parking capacity were used (could be around 624 vehicles a day), the development would still produce more than 1,200 additional vehicle movements—cars entering and exiting the site directly onto Maidstone Road. By comparison, the former school had parking for just six cars! Given this stark difference, it is difficult to understand how such a substantial increase in potential traffic movements around the school would not create issues. Planning have stated ‘all aspects of the traffic and parking impacts were assessed by the transport specialist.’ It will interesting to see what impact on Maidstone Road this might make.
This is going to be a nightmare for traffic on an already overloaded system. The existing store is only a 5 minute drive up the road and will be served by the same bus route that will serve this one.
Vince Maple stated that it would gain more support if it were in the centre of town, surely that should tell him that’s where the store should be based? Chatham is a struggling high street and this would bring in more footfall and other business there instead of yet more flats and NHS services.