Lidl store faces demolition threat

A new budget supermarket being built in one of Wolverhampton's most respectable suburbs may have to be torn down, council leaders revealed today.

Lidl bosses are currently in crisis talks with council chiefs over claims that the controversial store in Finchfield is in breach of planning conditions. Construction has been halted after an emergency notice was hand-delivered to the site in Finchfield Hill last week. Today it emerged Lidl could be ordered to rip down the shop and re-build it.

Councillor Malcolm Gwinnett, chairman of Wolverhampton City Council's planning committee, said: "Meetings have been going on with the council and Lidl over concerns it is not being built to the conditions approved.

"It is going to be very difficult to bring the building back to what it should be and so, subject to the planning committee's decisions, it could be that the store will have to come down."

The alarm was raised by residents worried the supermarket's shell appeared to differ to that given permission by Wolverhampton City Council.

It is claimed some parts of the building are up to seven feet taller than the approved plans, it is being built on a higher level of ground and it has a different roof.

Roadworks outside the site near its entrance have been allowed to continue in the interest of public safety but workers have been told to down tools on site.

Matt King, spokesman for Lidl, said work would stop until the issue was resolved.

The budget store was given the go-ahead for the former Castlecroft Garage site after years of planning wrangles over the land.

The application was passed despite protests from hundreds of residents who had already managed to fight off Waitrose and Marks & Spencer. Lidl's first application to transform the site was thrown out last year due to poor architectural design.