A NEW Lidl store in Calcot was given the go ahead at a planning committee last Wednesday.

The West Berkshire Council Eastern Area committee approved the town's second Lidl on Bath Road where the old Horncastle Ford building stood. 

The build will go ahead if the supermarket chain agree to a number of conditions imposed on the plans and to a section 106 payment by November 24, otherwise the council's head of planning and countryside can overturn last week's approval.

Subject to these conditions being met, which include completing the build in three years and only undertaking construction between 7.30am and 6pm on weekdays and between 8.30am and 1pm on Saturdays, the supermarket should bring 23 new jobs for the area.

The council said this could help ease the high levels of youth unemployment in Calcot, where one in six people aged between 18 and 24 received Jobseeker's Allowance, the highest in West Berkshire.

Concerns were raised during the consultation period by several bodies including Reading Borough Council, which questioned the impact the supermarket would have on nearby roads, and Carter Jonas, West Berkshire Council's retail consultant.

Mr Jonas said: “It is our judgement that the proposed Lidl store would result in a significant adverse impact on the turnover of the existing Lidl store at Oxford Road District Centre.

“There is no guarantee that the existing Lidl store would remain trading at the forecast levels of impact identified, and it is clear that its potential closure would result in a significant adverse impact on the overall vitality and viability of the centre.”

The retail consultant's suggestion that the plans go back to the drawing board were put to the side by the committee who judged that the build should go ahead.