Aldi in Wolverhampton gets go-ahead to open earlier despite objections

The supermarket had applied for a variation of a premises licence in relation to its store in Mercury Drive, off Stafford Road, which falls within the Bushbury South and Low Hill ward.

Initially, Aldi had sought to extend opening times from 8am-11pm to 6am-midnight, but then amended the application to 7am-11pm.

After a number of neighbours emailed the council’s licensing bosses to express concern, Lisa Gilligan of solicitors Freeths – acting on behalf of Aldi – told committee members today (Wednesday) the variation on the application was by way of mediation.

She said: “The stores that usually open at 8am are effectively the oldest stores in the Aldi estate. Over the last 12 months the business realised that on occasion this wasn’t enough for operational flexibility within that group of 400 odd stores.

“The current time allowed for the licence is 11pm so now what we are effectively seeking is one additional hour each morning.

“On occasion over the last 12 months, this store and the other 399 have opened at 7am – most notably for Christmas week and also to achieve social distancing.

“One sincerely hopes that social distancing will not be necessary in the future, but opening at that time did prove vital and incredibly useful.

“On the occasions that it would be opened at 7am, for example Christmas week, that was utilised by way of a Temporary Event Notices (TENs).

“So that was the motivation for seeking an extension to the licenses, for building more operational flexibility moving forward,” added Ms Gilligan.

“There is no intention that this store would change its trading pact to 6am until midnight, or that it was suddenly going to open for that extended period, but we totally appreciate that the licensing system only works in one way and a variation was necessary.

“Obviously notices cause alarm to some residents which is unfortunate. As soon as the representations were received you will have seen from the documentation my email to your licensing officer amending our application to 7am until 11pm.

“I would ask the committee to grant the application, as we are only asking for the additional hour,” she said.

The committee earlier heard from local resident Elliot Russell, who was present at the meeting.

He said: “I’m against this because I feel that in this residential area it’s not suitable for the families that live here – the noise that comes with it; the trouble; the parking issues.

“I’ve got small kids who I don’t think it’s fair on.

“You say that the licence is only going to be used on occasion, but it seems like this is ‘on occasion’ a lot of the time. It just seems that in this location it’s just not going to get any better.”

Mr Gilligan’s wife, who was also present at the meeting but wasn’t named, said: “When we fist moved here it was an 8pm close, then it went to 10pm and now they want 11pm, although I know it was originally 12 midnight.

“It just seems they are pushing the border every time to get it later and later. So before we know it we’ll be faced with a 24-hour operation like we have at Asda up the road.

“Around here, there are that many children and people living in the vicinity and they have to put up with noise, bad behaviour, bad parking – all that going on.

“We’ve had trouble sometimes with people coming outside their houses, loud music, trolleys being left outside the house. It’s all part and parcel,” she added.

“I think a lot of other people feel the same, and having spoken to me about how disappointed they are, I wish they had turned up today to say so.”

Licensing bosses granted the amended application after due consideration.