Discount supermarket chain Lidl wants to increase the size of the branch it plans to build in Hereford.

The company controversially gained permission in March to knock down the current Three Counties Hotel in Belmont Road to the southwest of the city to make way for the new supermarket.

A new planning application made by the company (number 242050) now seeks permission to up its total area from the approved 1,984 square metres to 2,275 square metres.

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A statement from its agent explains that the change is partly due to the inclusion of “deposit return scheme” facilities, part of a government requirement on retailers from next year aimed at cutting waste from drinks containers.

“Special reverse vending machines are required to operate the service, and the proposed floor plan now incorporates the necessary space to house this machine adjacent to the customer entrance,” it says.

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The entrance itself will become “more generous” while bakery and chiller areas will also be enlarged.

As before, the new outlet will have 118 parking spaces, eight of them reserved for disabled drivers and ten for parents with children, as well as two vehicle charging points. The layout to these will be tweaked to accommodate the larger supermarket.

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The impact of the plan on existing shops in the city “remains very low”, and there would be a “negligible increase in trips from the consented scheme”, Lidl’s application maintains.

It adds that following a recent break-in at the boarded-up hotel, “essential services / pipework have been stripped from the building” – which it anyway intends to demolish “shortly”.

Comment can be made on the proposal until September 26.