Sale of park and ride site to Lidl for new supermarket approved by councillors

Councillors have agreed to sell the park and ride site next to Kilbowie roundabout to the German-owned supermarket chain Lidl.

A debate on whether or not to approve the sale of the land was held during the infrastructure, regeneration and economic development committee last week.

The Labour group presented a motion to reject the recommendations to complete the sale – mainly because the Kilbowie roundabout at the A82 is one of the busiest in the area.

West Dunbartonshire Councillor Gail Casey said: “It is frequently congested so I think it would be dangerous to site a supermarket with car parking in this location and I do believe we should move it onto Lidl.

“You’ve got people meeting there to go hillwalking and parking their cars there and I have even seen tourist buses there so I don’t think we should have to go to this expense.

“Members have received complaints about this from local residents. Lidl still have a site in Clydebank and there are others which wouldn’t cause as many problems for example at the Play Drome.

“I believe a supermarket situated at that junction would cause hardship to our already dwindling Clyde shopping centre.

“We should stop them now while we can and don’t let them buy it.”

Members of the administration agreed that there were problems with the area and that the local authority should encourage the developer to engage with the public about their proposals.

Leader of the Council, councillor Jonathon McColl moved an amendment for any potential developer to make early contact with planning.

He said: “There are significant challenges with congestion and road safety at this site which will need to be resolved at the planning stage.

“Any developer must also have a good wide-ranging consultation with the local community before submitting a planning application.

“We have had problems with Lidl in the past with their initial attempts of pre-application consultation. To me it seemed more like a survey to see what level of business they could expect rather than consult with people about what they wanted.

“Hopefully lessons have been learned there. It is far too early to be rejecting this out of turn. We have to see what proposals come forward and an informed decision will be made.

“We do have the power to reject this but as a responsible administration I believe we should make the decision once we have all the facts before us.

“I think we need to allow the developer and our officers to work together and present something to this committee and planning.”

Following the discussion, the majority of members agreed to the sale of land. Updates will now have to be brought back before future IRED committees and a proper planning application for the new supermarket will need to be made.