National Highways says planning permission should be withheld for a further three months to allow developers to resolve “outstanding matters” relating to the A-road impact of the Aldi supermarket and residential development in Rye.
However, the Environment Agency has approved the development subject to a condition which will ensure that no floors are lower than 3.45m above sea level and that a proposed scheme for “floodplain volume compensation” goes ahead. The EA also mentioned other measures regarding ways to mitigate or respond to flood impacts.
The development — which has sparked huge interest among local residents — involves the construction of an £18m Aldi supermarket, 16 private homes and a large building for retirement accommodation off the A259 (Winchelsea Road) in Rye.
National Highways said it had reviewed two follow-up documents from the developers’ consultants and the agency listed a number of traffic / queue-modelling issues that it required the developers to address.
“It is currently not possible to determine whether the application would have an unacceptable impact on the safety, reliability and / or operational efficiency of the Strategic Road Network,” the agency concluded.
NH recommended the planning application not be approved until January 29 2025, to allow the road issues to be resolved to its satisfaction.
Meanwhile, the developers’ consultant Avison Young has responded forcefully to earlier criticism of the project by Jempson’s supermarkets’ consultant Peacock and Smith.
Image Credits: Harris Partnership , David Worwood .
We need an alternative supermarket, and we need it NOW!
Hopefully it will come soon and Rye can get an affordable supermarket. The ever increasing prices of Jempsons need some competition, I feel we have been taken for granted for too long.
One hurdle overcome thanks too see from the environment agency agreeing with conditions, Now for the highway agency too see common sence, there is enough room for 3 lanes into the aldi site, one going in and two coming out for traffic turning in each direction on the A259 to overcome this problem,and let’s not forget the two aldi sites situated in Hastings and St Leonards both accesing and exiting the busy A259 trunk road.
Strange, as I find that since the arrangements with Morrisons were entered into by Jempsons, their pricing has become increasingly competitive. True, we do our main shop with Ocado who price match with Tesco, but increasingly we are finding that similar products – often under the Morrisons own brand label – are cheaper at Jempsons. And the quality of Morrisons own brand product, particularly fresh goods, is often better.
You think traffic chaos in Rye is bad at the weekends, wait until Aldi opens and hundreds more cars stream in from the surrounding areas for their weekly shop.
Most traffic chaos in Rye is self inflicted, parking on yellow lines,on roundabouts and by pedestrian crossings,and pavements the congestion will continue, time our absent police and traffic wardens got a grip of this situation,which is getting worse, week in week out.
I agree with John S – many of the Morrisons brand products in Jempsons are really cheap, which was a pleasant surprise when they made the switch from Co-op to Morrisons. It needs to be acknowledged and appreciated that this has made shopping there for locals very much more competitive and affordable.