SUPERMARKET giants Lidl have submitted a bid to extend the opening hours of their newest store in Newport.

Last April, their brand new store on Cardiff Road, Maesglas opened its doors to customers for the first time – on the site of the former South Wales Argus offices.

But this week (Monday, June 27), Newport City Council has received an application on behalf of the store, which is looking to extend its opening hours over bank holidays.

The application, submitted by agents Carney Sweeney on behalf of Lidl GB Limited, has called for opening hours on bank holidays to be extended to 8am through to 10pm.

Currently, the store has permission in place to trade from 10am to 4pm on bank holiday.

But, in the application to change the opening times, the company claimed that the nearby Tesco Extra store has longer opening hours, and it wishes to bring its own hours more closely aligned.

The application said: “The currently consented hours do not reflect with wider trading patterns of other food retailers within Newport, such as Tesco Extra, which trades from 6am until midnight on Bank Holidays."

Continuing, the company said that “although Tesco Extra is larger than Lidl, both stores lie in a similar trading environment.”

Currently, it is estimated that there are around 700 Lidl stores in the UK which currently have the bank holiday opening hours that the Newport store is hoping to have.

How did we get here?

Initially, the opening hours currently in place were granted by Newport City Council when considering the overall plans to demolish the Argus building and replacing it with a supermarket.

In making their decision, a representative of the council said that these hours are in place “in order to protect residents from noise nuisance”.

But, the applicant has this week argued that “while residential properties do adjoin the Lidl car park, it is not considered that the additional hours trading on a bank holiday will lead to notable noise and disturbance in the customer car park, with effects being limited to cars pulling in and car doors being closed. This is not considered to comprise unacceptable nuisance.”

Concluding, they said: “the proposal will not adversely impact adjacent properties and its change is justified in a competitive market. It will promote the local foundational economy.”

The planning application can be viewed and commented upon online here.