Lidl wants to demolish its Waterson Vale store, the Farmfoods unit and the empty Moulsham Inn for one 2,238 sq m shop. Comments close 16 October.
Lidl has applied to knock down its store at Waterson Vale in Moulsham and build a new one more than twice the size. The plan also clears the Farmfoods unit next door and the Moulsham Inn, which has stood empty since September 2024.
Chelmsford City Council validated the application on 10 September. Comments close on Friday 16 October, and the council’s target date for a decision is 10 December (Chelmsford City Council planning register, 26/01199/FUL).
What Lidl is asking for
The site sits south of the Princes Road, Waterson Vale and Fortinbras Way roundabout, with Burghley Way along its south-eastern edge. Lidl’s planning agent, CarneySweeney, sets out the scheme in a Planning and Retail Statement filed with the application.
The proposal includes:
- a single-storey store of 2,238 square metres, with 1,529 square metres of sales floor
- 98 parking spaces, down from 108 today, including six disabled bays and nine parent and child bays
- two rapid and 14 fast electric car chargers, with 29 more spaces wired for later
- solar panels on the roof and five new trees around the site boundary
- the same vehicle entrance, off Burghley Way
- opening hours of 7am to 11pm, seven days a week, subject to Sunday trading law
Deliveries would be limited to 7am to 11pm and handled inside an enclosed loading bay. Lidl says a store like this usually takes one or two lorry deliveries a day (Planning and Retail Statement, 26/01199/FUL).
Twice the store, almost the same floorspace
The headline number is Lidl’s own. Its current store is 1,070 square metres, so the new one would more than double it.
The site as a whole barely changes. Today it holds three businesses under two roofs:
| Building | Floorspace now | Floorspace proposed |
|---|---|---|
| Lidl | 1,070 sq m | 2,238 sq m |
| Farmfoods | 340 sq m | none |
| Moulsham Inn | 744 sq m | none |
| Total | 2,154 sq m | 2,238 sq m |
That is a net gain of 84 square metres. What changes is that three buildings’ worth of trading becomes one supermarket.
The application documents we read do not say where Farmfoods would go, or how long the Lidl store would be shut while the new one is built. The statement says only that Lidl would “first demolish its existing building and structures and the vacant public house and then construct a new Lidl store”.
The Moulsham Inn
Losing a pub needs justifying under the council’s Local Plan. Policy DM21 asks for evidence that a pub is no longer viable and no longer needed by the community.
Lidl has filed a viability report by Colliers and a marketing report by Rapleys. The statement summarises them:
- Greene King left when its lease ran out on 28 September 2024, despite having the option to renew
- the pub has been on the market for around 12 months
- there were five offers, two from pub operators and three from restaurant operators
- one pub operator withdrew; the other offered a rent “more than 50%” below the last one, which was rejected
- the three restaurant offers were rejected as too low
- no community group expressed an interest
- refitting the building would cost about £650,000
- there are 21 other pubs within two miles
Those are the applicant’s figures, and the council will weigh them. It had already flagged the pub as a sticking point. In its pre-application advice it said the principle of the scheme “may be acceptable”, but that Lidl had to show the pub “cannot be used or converted for alternative community facilities” before officers could recommend approval.
The trees, and the houses behind
The pre-application advice raised two other points worth knowing if you live nearby.
The council said the trees along Burghley Way, Waterson Vale and Princes Road are “worthy of protection”. It served a provisional Tree Preservation Order on them. Lidl’s statement says a number of existing trees would be kept, but “a small number” would have to go.
The new store would also sit further south than the old one. For the homes at 2 to 24 Burghley Way, the view changes from a car park to the back of the store. Lidl’s section drawing puts the building 12.78 metres from those houses, with a rear wall 5.2 metres high. It argues the store would screen the houses from car park noise.
Not the first plan for this site
Lidl already has permission to grow here. In April 2022 the council approved an extension that would have absorbed the Farmfoods unit into a single, larger Lidl (21/02454/FUL). The statement confirms that permission was never used. This new application goes further, by taking the pub site too.
The application form lists the same staffing before and after: 10 full-time and 40 part-time posts.
What it means for you
- To comment, search for 26/01199/FUL on the council’s planning register, or write to Chelmsford City Council, PO Box 7544, Chelmsford, CM1 1JE. The deadline is 16 October 2026.
- The documents are on the council’s planning documents viewer. There are 48, including the transport assessment, the noise report and the pub marketing evidence.
- Nothing changes yet. The store trades as normal until a decision, and Lidl has not published a building timetable.
For other schemes going through the council, see our Chelmsford planning news page.
Sources
- Chelmsford City Council planning register, application 26/01199/FUL, for the validation date, the 16 October consultation expiry and the 10 December target date, read 27 September 2026.
- Chelmsford City Council statutory planning notice in the Essex Chronicle, 24 September 2026, for the description and comment address (Public Notice Portal).
- CarneySweeney for Lidl Great Britain: Planning and Retail Statement and covering letter of 28 August 2026, and the application form, on the council’s planning documents viewer, for every floorspace, parking, opening hours, pub marketing, tree, staffing and planning history figure above.
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