Lidl to demolish and rebuild Foots Cray store near Sidcup

Supermarket chain Lidl have submitted plans to Bexley Council to demolish an existing store and rebuild on industrial units nearby.

Disappointingly the store plan to use their off-the-shelf big box with hardly any residential homes (5 are planned) despite being on a large site near amenities.

They’ve tried similar in other boroughs including Southwark (Old Kent Road) and Greenwich (Abbey Wood) and been rebuffed given the lack of homes planned on site alongside retail barns and car parking.

Bexley Council have however permitted big box retail in town centres with a new store in Bexleyheath and a rebuild in Welling.

Now that Bexley Council have belatedly realised they need more housing (see the Bexley Growth Strategy) will they insist on more homes on this sizable site or allow it to proceed whilst at the same time allowing green spaces to be built on across the borough?

It’d also benefit Lidl to have greater levels of housing on site. More homes equals more customers. We’re not talking tower blocks here but a bit more than just five houses alongside acres of single-level car parking (build a multi-storey instead) and a retail barn.

The alternative is parks and green spaces being built on (plenty of that happening in the borough) with urban sprawl continuing ever further out forcing people to soulless suburbia living away from shops, work and amenities. Ever increasing traffic and public transport congestion is the result.

The planning reference is 18/00242/FU

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