The Aldi supermarket in Bradley Stoke has been granted permission for longer “working and delivery hours” despite opposition from the Town Council.
Officers at South Gloucestershire Council have allowed the store to operate for an hour longer on all seven days of the week, overruling an objection from the Town Council’s Planning Committee that this would be “detrimental to the residential amenity of the surrounding area”.
The move was supported by a customer petition organised by Aldi, which attracted 285 signatures. No local residents objected to the application but one wrote to support it on the grounds of flexibility, competitiveness and job creation.
Hours of working at the store will now be limited to 7am – 9pm Monday to Saturday and 10am – 5pm on Sundays and Public Holidays, although it is not clear whether this will result in corresponding extensions to opening times (currently 8am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sundays and Public Holidays).
Prior to January this year, the Aldi store was forbidden from receiving deliveries on Sundays and Public Holidays, but it successfully applied to have this condition removed. A request to allow early morning “hours of working” (from 6am Monday to Saturday and 8am on Sundays and Public Holidays) was rejected on the grounds that the applicant had “failed to provide enough information in respect of potential noise disruption at very early times in the morning”.
That earlier application for the removal and relaxation of conditions was supported by a 842-name customer petition but opposed by the Town Council and one local resident.
More info: Planning application for later working hours (SGC)
Looks like the Tesco lobbyists should have worked a bit harder. Shame on the council. They are meant to represent the residents not their corporate mates.
Jolly good. It’s really annoying when I leave the office at 8pm and this place is just shutting up. Hardly what one would call convenient!
Yet Tesco are allowed to reverse an articulated lorry into their nearby store for regular deliveries causing absolute chaos in the process.
Good to see our elected representatives forgetting who votes for them.
I am pleased they are opening longer, just wish they would have more staff on the tills at busy times, the queues are a pain in the derrier!
Exactly the same situation applies to me as it does to Bert. I will be able to buy stuff now even when I am late. Does anyone know when this new timings become effective ?
Just to confirm what is stated in the article: Aldi has been granted permission for “working and delivery” hours to be extended by one hour. There has been no confirmation from the store that this will lead to longer opening hours. In theory, they are now able to open until 9pm Mon-Sat (instead of 8pm). They also have the opportunity of opening 11am to 5pm on Sundays, instead of 10am to 4pm (national legislation limits Sunday trading hours to six hours for “large” stores).
Well, I presume that if there was a customer petition, the reason Aldi applied is so that they can open longer. I can’t think of many supermarkets that are restricted to closing at 8pm. The largest store in the town (Tesco Extra) opens 24/7 during the week and even the smallest stores (erm, Tesco Expresses) open until 11pm.
Aldi are far cheaper and have many items that can’t be found at the big T.
Maybe if they could open longer, they could afford another member of staff so that more tills could be made available during busier times. I know Aldi’s approach it to have flexible staff to keep prices down, but they could do with an extra checkout available more often….
If just one resident complained – how did the Council reach its decision??
At least Aldi does not blast out loud music in the store unlike the larger Tesco.
Confirmation that the successful planning application has allowed the Aldi store in Bradley Stoke to open longer: