Aldi unveils store plan for Newmarket
Supermarket giant Aldi has unveiled plans of how its proposed new development on the former gas works site in Newmarket’s Exning Road will look.
The plans is to split the site using it for a new food store and for extra care apartments for the elderly.
The proposals have been welcomed by Newmarket Town Council but now Aldi is asking residents what they think and has distributed thousands of leaflets outlining plans and inviting comments .
The new Aldi store, which is likley to provide 50 new jobs, would be built at the front of the site with a sales area of 1,254 square metres and parking for 119 cars.
It will be accessed from a new roundabout in Exning Road and the store will be roughly the height of a two-storey residential building.
The care apartments will be built by the Anchor Group, which is England’s largest not-for-profit housing association which currently provides homes for more than 40,000 older people at around 1,000 locations across the country.
The group’s proposal for Newmarket is for 69 care apartments which would be sold on a 99-year lease and would each come with its own care package tailored for residents. As well as the living accommodation, the new complex would also include 51 car parking spaces, a hotel-style reception area , a bistro-style cafe and an activities area for residents .
Anchor employs it own care staff and when outlining its proposals to town councillors earlier this month, development manager Judith Robinson said the company would be looking to take on around 25 full and part time staff. The Exning Road site which is next to the town’s leisure centre has been unused for more than 30 years.
In May 2013 Morrisons was given planning permission to build a new store . But two years later on the back of disappointing sales results, the Bradford-based company said it had reviewed its new store requirements and had decided not to ahead with the Newmarket project. In September last year, the Journal revealed the site had been sold and last month told readers the new owner was Aldi. A spokesman for the company said it had a “longstanding requirement for a new store in Newmarket.”
Both Aldi and Anchor are planning to submit their planning applications to Forest Heath District Council in June.