Aldi's project to build an £8m supermarket in Rye has been handed another lifeline, after the National Highways (NH) agency extended a deadline by two months.
NH now recommends planning permission be frozen until July 29 to allow the agency time to assess revised proposals, after information was received from Aldi and its development partners' transport consultants GTA on April 23.
It's the third delay imposed by NH. Plans were originally submitted in 2023 for the new store on Winchelsea Road, along with proposals for homes and retirement housing.
The German supermarket giant has also lodged its updated road access plans on Rother District Council's planning portal. The submissions appear to be a last-ditch attempt to meet NH's requirements and allay its concerns about the impact of the supermarket's access road on the A259 (Winchelsea Road).
In brief, the consultants' latest safety risk assessment offers visibility of 43 metres (both ways) to drivers leaving the access road, which would be a simple priority junction. The document firmly rejects the idea of a 'ghost island' junction, a mini-roundabout or a traffic signal-controlled junction, owing to prohibitive costs. A simple priority junction would cost £579,554, while the other options would come in at between £6.2m and £7.9m.
The existing access side-road — currently serving the John Jempson and Son haulage yard — would be reduced in width from 8.5m to 7.7m, with 8m-radius kerbs built on both sides.
If Winchelsea Road is deemed to be a road (not a street) at this location, a visibility of 70m would be required to comply with document CD 123 in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. But it's within the power of NH to permit 'relaxations' of this rule where appropriate.
However, in order to persuade National Highways that the 43-metre visibility proposal is acceptable, GTA also argues that Winchelsea Road at this location features a "modest daily traffic flow" of only 11,000-11,500 vehicles a day, speeds consistently under 30mph and is consequently more like an urban 'street' than a 'road'. If this argument is recognised, the lower visibility distance contained in the Manual for Streets might be accepted.
While Aldi, along with Decimus and McCarthy Stone, now have breathing space to resolve the issues raised by National Highways, it's certainly not a given that the proponents will be able to overcome the access road problem, which has become the project's main stumbling block.
Meanwhile, Rye residents continue to wait for a planning decision, with an overwhelming majority of public comments made to Rother District Council supporting a second supermarket in the town.
