Cheshire West and Chester Council’s planning committee met on Tuesday where it unanimously backed a proposal to demolish Weaver Vale Garden Centre on Winnington Lane to make way for an entirely new building.
The new garden centre will be designed to suit what the applicant called the ‘changing expectations’ of modern garden centre customers and will include a shop, restaurant, covered outdoor display area, outdoor sales area, new warehouse and an extension to parking and service yard areas.
The proposals were submitted by Falkirk-based company Klondyke Strikes Garden Centres which bought the site in 2006 – although the centre had operated for many years beforehand.
The scheme also includes the widening of existing access, external lighting, electric vehicle charging points and cycle storage. The plans are expected to safeguard existing jobs and create a further 47 roles.
David Yardley, CEO of Klondyke Group, said the plans had been in the pipeline for years but had been scuppered by the pandemic, which had also resulted in a rethink of the plans themselves.
He told the committee: “Covid changed the way garden centres operate, and we then went back and redesigned what we felt we wanted to develop.
“So we’ve worked on the plans and think we now have a very workable, good garden centre design.”
He added: “There’s no hidden agenda. It’s a garden centre. We want to be a garden centre. We want to stay and we want to make it as friendly as possible for the local community.”
Some objections had been received raising issues such as fears over light pollution and disruption caused by HGV deliveries.
And at the meeting, committee chair Cllr Gina Lewis raised concerns over deliveries on Sundays and Bank Holidays, but planning officers said the proposals had been assessed by the council’s own experts who had no concerns, adding the issue would be down to the garden centre to ‘manage appropriately’.
A vote saw the plans passed unanimously.
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