Plans approved to demolish hotel for a Lidl

The hotel has housed asylum seekers since closing to guests

A plan to demolish a hotel and replace it with a supermarket has been narrowly approved.

Lidl wants to build a store on the site of Hereford’s Three Counties Hotel, which has been used to house asylum seekers since it closed to guests a year ago.

The discount retailer applied for planning permission in June 2023, having withdrawn a previous application for a slightly larger store following more than 200 objections.

After a debate of more than two hours on Wednesday, a majority of Herefordshire Council's planning committee supported the plan.

Several speakers at the meeting spoke of widespread local opposition to the supermarket and focussed largely on its likely impact on traffic on the main road.

But planning officer Heather Carlisle told councillors there were no technical objections to the plan and there were no preferable sites.

The new store would not add to congestion as many shoppers would switch from other supermarkets, Peter Waldren, an agent for Lidl, claimed.

Councillor Richard Thomas had proposed refusing Lidl’s scheme on several grounds but this was rejected by fellow committee members.

That came after officers highlighted the difficulty in supporting these objections with evidence.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.