Lidl's supermarket's were a favourite for me even before I discovered they were building a store in Shieldfield on the old motor homes sales site at the junction of Portland Road and Warwick Street. True, I would have quite liked that cleared site to be integrated back into the City Stadium; for a while it had been used by skateboarders, a use I approved of but didn't last.
When plans were released I saw the flowering cherry trees beside Portland Road felled and posted about that vandalism on this blog. I wrote e-mails to all three of my local Councillors at that time for an explanation, and sent a copy to Lidl's U.K. Only Lidl's UK replied. Their reply came with a full outline of their plans and drawings and pledges to make good any lost trees and more; it also claimed the tree felling was requested by Newcastle City Council. Thee e-mail promised tree planting around the site in double figures, a sedum roof and comprehensive controls on waste management and integral re-cycling.
This preceded the Covid Pandemic and since then little has happened on site. I heard a rumour another large food retailer had placed an objection. Last month a digger turned up and work is well underway.
Shieldfield and Sandyford suffers from limited access to affordable and varied food at price points most can afford. 'Food access poverty' is a thing, particularly for the less mobile; we have many such households in the district.
We shall have to wait and see if all the environmental promises are met. I still have the correspondence and will monitor progress. However, for the community's sake, I welcome Lidl's.