Latest news
June 2011
The company has said that building will be starting "soon".
March 2010
The old garage has been demolished, but planning permission is still needed before building of the store can start.
January 2009
Wirral Council's Planning Committee approved Aldi's plans, but it will go ahead only if the garage can be relocated elsewhere in West Kirby, and a planning application for a new petrol station on Orrysdale Road will be considered in February 2009. Improvements to the Meols Drive / Bridge Road junction will have to be made by the company.
November 2008
The planning application has now been submittted for the Bridge Road store - see here. End of public consultation: 18 Dec 2008.
September 2008
Aldi had a public exhibition of their plans for the Tudor Cinema site in West Kirby on Thursday 18th September at St Andrews Church Hall, Graham Road, West Kirby.
June 2008
At the West Wirral Area Forum held in Hoylake on 11 June 2008, Cllr Elderton said that there have now been preliminary discussions between Aldi and the Council Planning Department, but no planning application had been received.
February 2008
On Feb 4 2008 multinational supermarket chain Aldi announced proposals to construct a store in Bridge Road, West Kirby
- see Liverpool Daily Post article.
But at the Local Area Forum on 19 Feb 2008, Cllr David Elderton said that there had been no planning application submitted and there have been no pre-application discussions. The only contact was in November 2007, between Aldi's agent and a lower level planning officer who advised on the procedures to be followed if an application were to be made.
According to the Post article, the company had options from the four owners of land on Bridge Road to buy their property, including the former cinema, a garage, and West Kirbys only petrol station.
It said that plans are being prepared for submission to Wirral Council within weeks.
The design of the store is said to be around 1,000 square metres, with 70 parking spaces.
This announcement is bound to cause controversy in the current climate of concern that supermarket expansion has gone too far, and that more small local businesses will have to close.
Letters have already been published in the local press about the possibilities of another supermarket and the increased traffic congestion at the Bridge Road / Meols Drive junction.
Another concern is the increased dependency on food from other regions of the UK and from abroad, at a time when many are advocating locally grown produce because it provides jobs within our local enviornment and keeps the economy of Wirral healthy.
About Aldi
According to wikipedia (www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi), Aldi is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany and is one of the largest retail chains worldwide, with 7,600 individual stores. The name Aldi comes from "ALbrecht DIscount", as the chain was originally owned by brothers Karl Albrecht and Theo Albrecht. The group operating in the UK is the ALDI Süd group of the company.