There are proposals to situate the new shops in a converted section of the Fircroft Way Industrial Estate which is located off Station Road in Edenbridge and to also include a large car park for shoppers with capacity for 127 vehicles in the development. Shoppers would have easy and direct access for the Lidl and Home Bargains from Station Road.
The application for the conversion has been approved by Edenbridge Town Council and developers are estimating that the new stores should be ready to open by mid 2019. There have been previous plans to renovate and convert the industrial estate in 2014 when Sainsburys had planned to locate a store and a petrol station there. Although this plan was given approval, Sainsbury chose not to go ahead with the redevelopment.
The proposed Lidl and Home Bargains development will be a substantial size with the Lidl store being 1,780 square metres and the Home Bargains store measuring 1,300 square metres.
The arrival of Lidl and Home Bargains in Edenbridge is expected to bring new jobs to the area. It is estimated that the two stores will together create a total of approximately 95 new jobs with both full time and part time opportunities being available. Both Home Bargains and Lidl have stated that they are committed to filling as many jobs as possible with residents from the local area.
Following the approval by the local council, a public consultation was launched in December 2017 by development company RAMAC to enable the local residents to study the proposed development and give their opinions.
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