DISCOUNT supermarket Lidl is planning to open a new store in Ellesmere Port, in a move which would create up to 30 new jobs.

Lidl is looking to open a store at what will be the former Great Sutton Medical Centre building on Old Chester Road, and has lodged plans with Cheshire West and Chester Council.

The existing 1,370 sq m medical centre site would be demolished once work on the new, state-of-the-art medical centre – which will come complete with a village hall and scout hut – is finished across the road.

The new Lidl store would spread across two floors totalling 2,072 sq m (maximum height seven metres), with an 80-space customer car park, including six accessible parking spaces, six parent and child spaces and two electric vehicle rapid charging points, plus 12 customer cycle parking spaces.

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There will also be a soft landscaping scheme and solar panels on the roof.

It is planned to create a new access point to the store from the A41 Chester Road, while pedestrians and cyclists could still access from Old Chester Road, where the store entrance would face.

We revealed last year that Lidl, which now has more than 925 stores and 13 regional distribution centres across the UK, employing over 27,500 people, had earmarked Ellesmere Port as a potential site to continue its expansion plans.

In planning documentation, it is stated the store would require up to 30 members of staff (hours equivalent to 20 full-time staff), with full and part-time roles on offer. It would be "expected" that most, if not all, new staff would be locally recruited, and all would be paid a 'Real Living Wage' "as recommended by the Living Wage Foundation".

The proposed opening hours of the new supermarket would be 7am-10pm on Mondays-Saturdays (excluding public and bank holidays), and for a six-hour period between 10am-6pm on Sundays.

Deliveries to the store would come from the regional distribution hub in Runcorn and be delivered via the Chester Road access point.

Planning applicants state that food surplus waste would be collected at the store daily and made available for collection by local charity organisations, typically in co-ordination with the Neighbourly initiative, which assists businesses to help local good causes.

The new Lidl would include a container recycling facility, comprising a Deposit Return System (DRS), where contactless, user-friendly machines can encourage customers to return undamaged, empty glass/plastic bottles and aluminium cans originally purchased in Lidl, with a reward of a 10p voucher per item (up to a maximum of £2.50), for customers to spend in store.

Lidl's shopping trolleys would be managed by a coin deposit system, and stored in an internal trolley park adjacent to the store entrance lobby.

It is planned for the customer car park to be free of charge with a maximum stay of 90 minutes, to allow enough time for shoppers to go to Lidl and other nearby stores/services. It is noted that if the time limit "becomes subject to regular abuse", the car park would have Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology to control management.