A SUPERMARKET chain has lodged a formal objection to a rival company's plans for a new store in Cleckheaton.

Aldi wants to build a new 1,315 sq m discount foodstore on part of the former Cleckheaton Mills site on Bradford Road.

The scheme was submitted to Kirklees Council earlier this year and would create around 40 jobs for the area.

Now Bradford-based Morrisons, which has its own store in nearby Heckmondwike, has opposed the plans.

A letter states that Morrisons has "a number of significant concerns" regarding the development but specifically outlines fears around the "adverse impact" it would have on its nearby store.

It adds that Morrisons operates a town centre store in Heckmondwike that "anchors the town centre and loss of trade to this store is likely to result in loss of trade to the wider town centre".

The letter also states that they are awaiting justification as to how the turnover figure of the new store was calculated, and will provide a more detailed objection later.

The Aldi plans themselves are to create a single storey building in a "contemporary modern style" by using large shopfront glazing with a minimalist canopy line. Materials include silver and anthracite coloured horizontally laid cladding panels.

A design and access statement accompanying the application states that the site is in a prominent position along Bradford Road and is easily accessible, providing “an ideal opportunity for retail led development to serve the local expanding community of Cleckheaton”.

There will be 110 car parking spaces for customers and staff.

“An Aldi store is a modest scale supermarket often fulfilling a neighbourhood shopping role as well as attracting customers from the surrounding area. Aldi’s customers generally use other shops and stores alongside Aldi in order to fulfil their grocery shopping and local service needs. Aldi is, therefore, complementary to the existing pattern of trading both in existing local/town centre shopping areas and larger out of town stores.”

The comments from Morrisons come as the firm has similarly objected to plans for a new Aldi store in Keighley at East Parade.

Morrisons, which has a supermarket at nearby Worth Way, has opposed the scheme, with its main reason being the extra traffic the development would create on the town centre’s already-congested roads.

It claims the scheme would “significantly erode” any benefits to the town in terms of traffic flows from the Hard Ings Road improvements currently being carried out.