Why you should be concerned about Lidl if you don’t live on Elvetham Heath
If you live in Hart you’ve probably heard about the planning application to build a Lidl food store, with a drive thru on Elvetham Heath.
With the spiralling cost of living, more competition among local supermarkets to help keep food prices as low as possible can only be a good thing. And, it would be great for this competition to come in the form of a conveniently located store with free parking.
Understandably, anyone who lives close to the proposed site will be concerned about direct impacts such as additional traffic congestion, road safety, noise, and light pollution. And, along with people who live further afield they have concerns about broader environmental and sustainability issues that indirectly affect us all.
Fortunately, according to the government’s Plain English guide to the Planning System, our planning system is designed to “ensure that the right development happens in the right place at the right time, benefiting communities and the economy.”.
Decisions on planning applications are taken by the Local Planning Authority (LPA) - in this case Hart District Council. The LPA has to decide whether an application is in accordance with local and national planning policies and guidance, based on information supplied by the applicant. This means for a correct decision, the information supplied must be clear and accurate.
“As a general principle, the planning system works in the public interest and matters that affect solely private interests are not usually material considerations in planning decisions.”
So, if the information supplied with a planning application is not clear and accurate - or in the worst case it attempts to mislead the LPA such that it makes a decision that is not in the public interest, the planning system breaks down, and inappropriate developments that serve solely private interests get the go-ahead.
It’s important for the public to scrutinise planning applications and call out inaccuracies and misleading claims, such as those made in the Lidl application so the development of our district is not driven solely by the private interests of landowners and developers.