German retail giants Lidl reveal plans for new supermarket on the site of the Edmund Wilson Swimming Pool in Acomb, York (From York Press)

German retail giants Lidl reveal plans for new supermarket on the site of the Edmund Wilson Swimming Pool in Acomb, York

10:12am Saturday 21st November 2009

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A SUPERMARKET which is being planned to replace Edmund Wilson Swimming Pool in Acomb, York, is expected to bring 30 new jobs to the area.

German retail giants Lidl revealed more of its plans for the new Thanet Road supermarket this week to residents at an exhibition and product-tasting event in Foxwood Community Centre.

A spokesman for Lidl told The Press: “The proposal is to re-develop a brownfield site to provide a modern and energy-efficient store with up to 70 parking spaces. “The proposals will also see the site, which is a former council landfill, decontaminated.

“We held a public open day on Thursday. The feedback from local people was overwhelmingly positive. They told us a store was desperately needed to serve the local area and to offer serious competition to the existing Morrisons in Acomb and the Tesco in Tadcaster Road.”

He said the scheme would create 30 full and part-time jobs and a planning application for the site was due to be submitted to City of York Council in December.

One of those attending the exhibition in Foxwood on Thursday was city council leader Andrew Waller.

He said: “I went along and I am pleased that Lidl are engaging with the community.

“Clearly, this will have to go through the planning process because there are mixed feelings about this and people can make representations.

“But I was speaking to someone on Thursday who regularly used the Whitby store. So for people who use Lidl this will obviously reduce their mileage. And it will make use of the space.”

The council and Lidl first agreed the sale in October last year and the old Edmund Wilson swimming pool is expected to close any week.

A £6.5 million development at Oaklands School has replaced the swimming facilities at Edmund Wilson.

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