Sainsbury’s development finally goes ahead despite years of delay

Council bosses have finally given the go-ahead to an out-of-town supermarket and petrol station development.

Councillors approved Sainsbury’s proposals for the scheme at the former Homebase site at Kew at their planning committee meeting.

Plans for the store, on Meols Cop Retail Park, were scaled back after the collapse of the food giant’s proposed merger with Asda.

Permission was granted in December 2016 for a store raised on stilts with parking beneath, first- floor foodstore, car parking and filling station.

Permission for the scheme runs until December 7, 2019. But when the planned Asda merger fell through earlier this year, Sainsbury’s moved towards reducing store sizes and revised the Kew development.

Sainsbury’s were obliged by the original planning permission consent to keep their Lord Street store open for five years – and planning officers attached the ‘keep open’ condition to the second application.

The Kew project has met with criticism in some quarters with Dukes Ward Councillor John Pugh accusing Sefton Council of ‘climate change hypocrisy’ in agreeing to the development.