Schroders Real Estate

ALDI Hall Road, Norwich

Planning permission was secured in 2015, on behalf of Schroders Real Estate, for an ALDI food store within their Hall Road Retail Park, Norwich. Following previous successes promoting ALDI within the City and through existing good relations with the LPA, Planning Potential were able to achieve a unanimous approval at committee.

The proposal involved the development of an underused area of car park to provide a unit for a new anchor tenant, which would attract shoppers and increase footfall across the wider park. We coordinated pre-application discussions to secure the support of officers prior to the submission – on the key technical areas of highways, design and retail.

The retail case was based on promoting an ALDI to provide choice in the south of the urban area, which had poor food store provision. The scheme was designed to integrate with a new District Centre to the south, providing a complementary offer to a proposed ASDA food store, which had permission at the time of our submission.

Following an objection from ASDA, on the grounds an ALDI would jeopardise delivery of the District Centre, we provided robust rebuttals to retain the support of officers and allow them to recommend the application for approval.

The officers’ recommendation was also complemented by overwhelming local support, which we secured working alongside our sister company Communications Potential, by conducting a community consultation exercise with local residents and businesses.

We represented the client at committee and spoke in rebuttal to ASDA who also attended, securing unanimous approval from members. Permission was issued in December 2015 with no Section 106 agreement deemed necessary.

Summary of achievements

  • Coordination of pre-application discussions with the local planning authority
  • Production of a detailed planning statement and retail impact assessment
  • Coordination of planning application and submission
  • Coordination of a community consultation exercise, issuing a consultation leaflet and meeting with key local stakeholders
  • Secured overwhelming support from the local community prior to application
  • Successfully rebutted competitor objections
  • Project managed consultant team
  • Represented client at committee and secured a positive resolution with no S106 obligations