Plans lodged to turn supermarket into charity's first ever '˜superstore'

Plans have been lodged to transform a supermarket into a charity's first ever '¨'˜superstore'.

Aldi is soon to vacate a shop at the retail park off Nottingham Road, Somercotes, and move into a new premises nearby at the end of this month.

And Derbyshire’s air ambulance service has applied to move into the soon-to-be empty store and turn it into a fundraising shop with a café.

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The planning documents state: “As part of our development we want to open our first charity superstore.

“The superstore will incorporate a mixture of our current shops; donated homeware, furniture, electricals, and clothing. As part of our customer service commitment we will have a small café instore, ’The Landing Pad’.

“This café will have a simple offering of sandwiches, paninis and cake. Our customers can have a browse and then have a drink and perhaps chat with us to learn more about our organisation and what we do/how they can help.

“The current Aldi site meets all our requirements and is a perfect location for our first charity superstore.”

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The café will open slightly reduced times to the main store, which will be 9am to 4.30pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday.

The planning documents add: “We will not be serving alcohol within the café so no disturbances to neighbours could be created from this.

“The amendments to the current unit will be minimal, and no new external amendments have to be made except for the seating area, which is quite hidden by the shrubs and trees at the front of the unit. These will remain in place, and just maintained.

“There is a small catering unit that sits on the land in front of our store, however this unit offers more hot cooked food such as burgers and bacon baps, for takeaway only. We are not selling these items, and as such feel we will offer a different eating experience and pose no competition.

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“Our car park is large enough for footfall to the store and the café and already has disabled spaces and mother and child spaces. We will also offer customer toilets, disabled toilets and baby change for our customers.”

The Air Ambulance has been running since October 2000 and covers Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire.

It currently has 56 shops which generate funds to keep the service operating.

The charity does not receive any Government funding and relies fully on donations.

A decision on the site is due by September 20. View the plans on the Amber Valley Borough Council website using the reference number AVA/2018/0763