Plans for new Aldi supermarket approved on appeal

Plans for an Aldi store near a Surrey junction described as being "fraught with danger" have been green-lit after an appeal.

Plans for a new budget supermarket in Alexandra Road in Epsom had been in the pipeline since 2015 but had been rejected multiple times due to concerns about the site's location.

Now, the Planning Inspectorate has conditionally reversed a second application which was thrown out in July 2024, saying that mitigations to encourage people to walk to the store would help.

Aldi now has three years to start building on the Alexandra Road site before planning permission runs out.

Members of Epsom and Ewell Borough Council threw out the German company's second application due to fears the increased traffic would have a severe impact on road safety, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Residents and councillors had previously slammed the scheme as exacerbating an already "challenging junction" which people described as a "rat run" and "fraught with danger".

But Surrey Highways had raised no objection to the scheme and said it would not create unacceptable risks.

Although the planning inspector agreed that the Aldi store would "undoubtedly increase the potential for conflict between vehicles and pedestrians", they reasoned "additional measures to encourage drivers to slow down and take extra care would help to mitigate these increased risks".

The decision statement read: "At the end of the day, nearly all collisions are the result of human error.

"In this case the lack of an obvious pattern of collisions suggests that there are not significant problems with the layout which could easily be addressed by engineering interventions."

Conditions on the Aldi scheme include enlarging and improving pedestrian access to the site, new junction signage and an anti-skid surfacing. These are subject to full agreement by Surrey Highways Authority.

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