Discount supermarket plans lodged for former cattle market

A job-creating discount supermarket could be built on the site of a former cattle market in East Yorkshire if newly submitted plans get the green light.Aldi Stores Ltd has submitted a full planning application to East Riding of Yorkshire Council for a new store on the Former Cattle Market site on Eastgate South in Driffield town centre.Planning permission is sought for the construction of a foodstore with a gross external area of about 20,000 sq ft and net sales area of about 14,100 sq ft.The plans also include 121 customer parking spaces, of which six would be accessible bays, ten parent and child bays and two motorcycle bays.The proposed store is expected to support about 40 full-time equivalent staff.The project team includes Projekt Architects, ONE Environments, klr Planning, ND Transport Planning, ENS, NJD Environmental, becg, 3E Consulting Engineers, Total Ecology, All About Trees, Humber Archaeology Partnership and Wave.A design and access statement accompanying the plans said: “Part of the proposed site is derelict and has become an eyesore. The proposed development would bring the site back into active economic use and create new jobs.”The Aldi store would broaden the range of food retail facilities and improve choice for the community.”This application has been submitted in parallel with a proposal by Gatsby Group Ltd to create a new public car park, accessing from Exchange Street, also on the former cattle market site.The cattle market closed in 2001 due to the foot and mouth outbreak and the associated buildings were demolished in 2018.Plans were previously submitted for a 59,000 sq ft foodstore with 348 parking spaces. The application was recommended for refusal at a meeting in 2015 as the proposal was not a ‘mixed-use’.However, members resolved to approve it, concluding there were benefits in regenerating the site and bringing forward much needed retail development that outweighed the planning policy.Despite the support, the decision was not issued and the application was eventually withdrawn in January 2017.