Check the latest public notices in your area – planning, roads and licensing <\/p>\n
Fears a new Aldi car park will become an overflow for a packed-out David Lloyd gym have been raised as highways chiefs demand more spaces at the proposed supermarket.<\/p>\n
Kent County Council (KCC) says the German retailer\u2019s planned 122-space car park at Altira Park in Herne Bay is inadequate for a store of the desired size and wants at least 16 extra bays added.<\/p>\n
How the proposed new Aldi store at Altira Park in Herne Bay could look. Picture: Aldi<\/p>\n
But gym users believe the situation will be even worse than the authority predicts if the new supermarket opens next door to the oversubscribed David Lloyd Leisure club.<\/p>\n
Members claim the \u00a3174-a-month gym\u2019s car park is regularly overflowing, with drivers circling for spaces, parking on verges and occupying disabled and electric vehicle bays.<\/p>\n
Some are even resorting to using the nearby Sainsbury\u2019s car park instead.<\/p>\n
Now there are fears Aldi\u2019s car park could become the latest unofficial overspill area for leisure club members because it would sit even closer to David Lloyd than Sainsbury\u2019s.<\/p>\n
One gym-goer, who asked not to be named for fear of affecting his membership, said: \u201cParking is an absolute nightmare if you want to go after work or at the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are often no spaces at all, so people just park on the verges or use the electric vehicle or disabled spots.<\/p>\n
Members of David Lloyd in Herne Bay say parking at the site is \u2018an absolute joke\u2019, with cars left anywhere they will fit<\/p>\n
\u201cOthers park over the road in Sainsbury\u2019s, but they\u2019ll just start using the new Aldi when that opens, as it\u2019ll be closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf KCC are already saying Aldi\u2019s car park is going to be too small, and they haven\u2019t factored in the issues at David Lloyd, they might have to redo their calculations.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll have people parking at Sainsbury\u2019s to do their shopping at Aldi and a workout at David Lloyd.\u201d<\/p>\n
While not mentioning David Lloyd in its submission to Canterbury City Council planners, KCC Highways has raised concerns about the impact of \u201clinked trips\u201d between nearby businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the proximity of the Aldi store to Sainsbury\u2019s and the planned enhancements to pedestrian connectivity, it is likely that a proportion of users will make linked trips between destinations while remaining parked for longer periods,\u201d it wrote.<\/p>\n
Another David Lloyd member, Gary Mills, described the parking situation as \u201can absolute joke\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople driving round and round looking for spaces, cars parked literally everywhere even blocking the entrance,\u201d he wrote on Facebook..<\/p>\n
Members have also reported drivers without blue badges using disabled bays and non-electric vehicles occupying EV charging spaces.<\/p>\n
Cars regularly park along the kerbside at David Lloyd in Herne Bay when spaces run out<\/p>\n
Gym user Bethany Earl said the lack of parking is particularly difficult for disabled visitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cAble-bodied humans can park at Sainsbury\u2019s and walk over,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot harder to do with my son\u2019s chair. I tried to do so, but there is not a path that gets you wheelchair access to the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Lloyd, which opened in December, has proved so popular there is currently a waiting list for new memberships.<\/p>\n
The club says it has already taken steps to try and ease pressure on the car park, including asking staff to use public transport or off-site parking and reviewing class schedules to reduce overlaps.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said: \u201cWe are committed to maintaining a strong relationship with our local community.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince opening in December, we have found members spending extended periods of time enjoying our facilities, which is having a greater impact on car park availability.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have taken various steps to manage car parking on site and we are continuing to monitor the parking patterns closely, as well as exploring further options for additional parking.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new Aldi store at Altira Park in Herne Bay could be built next to the recently opened David Lloyd Leisure club. Picture: Aldi<\/p>\n
The proposed Aldi would become Herne Bay\u2019s second branch alongside the existing Kings Road store and could create 40 jobs.<\/p>\n
But the plans still require approval from KCC Highways.<\/p>\n
As well as calling for more spaces, highways officials have also objected to the proposed size of the parking bays.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen scaled from the submitted drawings, the standard parking bays appear to be approximately 2.45m wide,\u201d the authority said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis falls below the minimum recommended bay width of 2.5m and will not be acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Molly Tindall, a real estate manager at Aldi, said: \u201cWe are working carefully with all relevant consultees as our application is considered. We work hard to ensure that all our schemes have sufficient parking and we are happy with the numbers here, based on independent data assessments, our existing Herne Bay store and experience across our wider estate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAn additional Aldi store for Herne Bay at Altira Business Park will represent an investment of \u00a37m, create approximately 40 new local jobs – paid at an industry-leading rate, above the National Living Wage \u2013 and improve access to Aldi\u2019s award-winning range of high-quality food at the lowest possible prices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Check the latest public notices in your area – planning, roads and licensing Fears a new Aldi car…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,2759,191,4475,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-601820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-herne-bay","tag-kent","tag-planning","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}