Lidl submits plans for new store at Wolverhampton hotel site
A long-standing hotel on a main gateway into Wolverhampton will be demolished to make way for a Lidl store creating 40 jobs under new plans.
Lidl wants to open a new store on Penn Road, Wolverhampton, at the site of the Mercure Goldthorn Hotel.
The discount retailer has submitted plans to Wolverhampton Council for the scheme, which will see the hotel demolished along with the business centre and one home.
The site sits near to the old Waitrose store over the other side of Penn Road, which is currently being transformed into a Tesco that will open in July.
A design and access statement by Whittam Cox Architects accompanying Lidl’s plans says the development of the almost two-acre site will create 40 jobs, split across full and part-time positions.
It says discussions have taken place with the city council “to ensure that the proposal submitted offers the best solution for the site”.
Under the plans, the supermarket will run along Penn Road between Lonsdale Road and Oaklands Road, and will feature a car park for 93 vehicles to the rear.
According to the architects the store entrance will be “prominent” from Penn Road, where a new hedgerow will run down in order to “further soften the appearance of the site”.
The statement concludes: “The proposed scheme seeks to bring a new foodstore offering to this part of Wolverhampton by redeveloping an existing commercial site,whilst also providing wider choice to consumers and generating new employment opportunities.
“This proposal will be constructed to a high quality with sensitivity to the local environment, employing contemporary and sustainable design and materials to create an attractive, high quality building which is appropriate to its surrounding built environment.”
The hotel features a Wolverhampton Civic Society blue plaque commemorating the life of John Rollings, a former director of Star Cycles and vice-president of the nearby Royal School who lived at the site.
German firm Lidl first revealed plans for four new stores in Wolverhampton back in 2019. The move was part of plans for a multi-billion pound investment programme that would double the number of supermarkets it has in the UK. The firm already has four stores in Wolverhampton.
In the past week alone Lidl has submitted plans for stores in Tyneside, Bristol and Surrey.
