Wells Lidl’s last day in business before being demolished

The Lidl store on Strawberry Way in Wells closed its doors for the foreseeable future at 12pm on Easter Saturday, as plans to knock down and rebuild the store with a larger, more modern building will soon be put into action.

Just prior to the store’s closure, almost every item on the shelves had been reduced, and many shelves were left completely empty, including the meat section.

The infamous ‘middle aisle’ of the store selling miscellaneous household items had been removed, and neatly stacked crates and boxes could be seen around the building.

It was a somewhat sombre atmosphere inside, and leaflets were being handed to customers with vouchers for the nearest Lidl branch, in Street.

The new shop, confirmed to open at the same location in February 2025, will increase in net sales floor space from 945 square metres to 1,414 square metres.

Lidl GB Ltd. applied in March 2022 to build a new supermarket on the A39 Strawberry Way, replacing both its existing store and building on the adjoining land left by the now demolished Travis Perkins outlet, near the Strawberry Way roundabout.

Although the sales area will take up the majority of the new store’s footprint, warehouse and ancillary areas will bring the total area of the building itself to 2,269 square metres.

Access to the budget supermarket’s new building will remain via the existing entrance located on Strawberry Way.

A total of 46 extra parking spaces will be created on site, bringing the total to 125, with an extra three disabled spaces and an additional 12 motorcycle spaces.

Electric vehicle charging points will also be provided.

Lidl stated the new store will create up to ten jobs, though the majority of these will be part-time.

Solar panels will adorn the roof of the new store, but will be adopted on a simple framework so that panels are fixed as close and flat to the roof as possible, to minimise visual intrusion whilst maximising the amount of energy generated.

The appearance of the rebuilt store will remain consistent with other, newer branches – using a mixture of grey cladding, with white render below and reconstituted stone plinth beneath.

For more details on the new store, search reference 2022/0273/FUL on Somerset Council’s online planning portal.

Somerset County Gazette | News