New supermarket given green light

Hertford could have a new supermarket after planners agreed to waive a planning condition prohibiting food retailing at Madford Retail Park in Ware Road.

Planning and development consultancy Lichfields, who include Lidl amongst their clients, submitted a planning application to subdivide Hertford's Matalan store in to two units and to widen the range of goods that can be sold to include food.

The planning condition banning food retail from the site was included in the original planning approval of 1989.

A Retail Impact Assessment showed that the future impact of a new food store on the town centre and other shopping locales would be less than 5%, which is not considered to be significantly adverse.

Lidl have made no comment on the proposed store, but in a recently published brochure, the company identified Hertford as a location of interest, saying: "Lidl are big on expansion, with ambitious plans to achieve 1,000 stores by the end of 2023 across Great Britain.

"This means we are looking to acquire sites that meet our standard store format requirements. Prominent locations with easy access and strong pedestrian or traffic flow.

Other sites considered for the store included Bircherley Green, but this was deemed to be "not intended to facilitate a single, large retail unit, with the largest unit proposed measuring just under 600 sq.m." and "not suitable or currently available for the proposed development".