Plans for a new retail park in Littlehampton, including an Aldi supermarket and Costa Coffee and McDonald’s drive-thrus, have been refused by Arun District Council.

The hybrid application from NCL Estates Ltd, for the site between Kingley Gate and Morrisons, off New Courtwick Lane, Wick, was turned down by the planning committee during a meeting on Wednesday, July 22.

Officers had recommended refusal on drainage grounds. A report to the committee said there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to show the development could be delivered without ‘leading to surface water run-off and increased flooding elsewhere’.

Simon McDougall (Lab, Pevensey) said: “We’ve been suffering with flooding left right and centre, and I certainly, in all conscience, couldn’t let any application go through without our drainage engineers saying ‘yea, we’re happy with this or ‘nay, we aren’t’. Unfortunately for this case they’re saying ‘nea’.”

Plans for a new retail park in Wick, including an Aldi supermarket and Costa Coffee and McDonald's drive-thrus, have been refused by Arun District Council. Image: NCL Estates Ltd via the LDRS

placeholder image — Plans for a new retail park in Wick, including an Aldi supermarket and Costa Coffee and McDonald's drive-thrus, have been refused by Arun District Council. Image: NCL Estates Ltd via the LDRS

The committee had other concerns as well, adding two more reasons for refusing the application: that the absence of improvements to the pedestrian crossing over the A259 would result in ‘significant harm to highway safety’, and that the proposed access into the development via New Courtwick Lane was unsafe.

Mike Northeast (Lab, Courtwick with Toddington) said: “There is no access from the Wickbourne estate to this supermarket without crossing the busiest road on the south coast, the A259. The amount of traffic that gets during the evening and at other sections during the day is quite appalling.”

Planning officers also said the scheme would have ‘a clear adverse impact’ on shops in Littlehampton town centre, predicting an overall reduction in turnover of seven to eight per cent – though they did not recommend refusal on those grounds.

But committee members had similar concerns, given that the supermarket would be one-third of a mile from a branch of Morrisons, in Hawthorn Road.

Ricky Bower (Con, East Preston) said: “I cannot for the life of me see that yet another Aldi adjacent to Morrisons is going to be beneficial.”

The council received 39 objections to the scheme, raising concerns about the increase in traffic and noise and the impact on biodiversity. It also received six letters of support, citing new job opportunities and business expansion.

To view the application, log on to www.arun.gov.uk and search for LU/72/25/OUT.