Work to start on town centre Lidl store soon

The company says it plans to start construction on the site in late spring/early summer.

The plan would be to open the store, at the former Boston Bedworld site on Tawney Street, early next year.

But the development would mean the loss of a 156 space car park in the town centre.

Robert Hall Palmer of Robin Hood Parking says their site has been there since 2004, and its loss will have an impact on shops in the area. The site was previously earmarked for a Lidl supermarket, but plans were shelved in 2016 when the company took the decision to build a bigger Westbridge Road store instead, which opened last year. Lidl resubmitted plans for Tawney Street last year which were approved by Boston Council in June.

A spokesman for the company said: “We can confirm that we’re due to start construction on site in late spring /early summer, with a view to opening the new store in early 2020.”

Although the news will be seen by many as welcome in the wake of the loss of Marks and Spencer to Boston, Mr Hall has warned that there will be a loss of car parking spaces.

Mr Hall said he would be closing the car park on 8 March to make way for the development to get underway.

He said: “The site has been run as a car park since 2004 and it has been on a rolling contract. After the closure of the Rover garage, the initial plan was for a large medical centre.

“This was shelved and the site was sold to Lidl. Lidl then decided the site was too small and built at the other end of town. They are now proceeding to build.”

He warned that the medical centre car park overflows onto his site every day, so the loss of the car park would affect its operation.

He also warned that shoppers may now struggle to find spaces. “The site is busy most days so it is likely to have an effect on the shops in the area,” he said.