Aldi, the award-winning discount food retailer, is proposing to develop a new discount food store at Necessity Brae Perth, to replace their existing store at Glasgow Road.

Update – February 2022

Aldi have traded successfully within Perth for many years, from both their Glasgow Road and Inveralmond stores. Due to the expanding popularity of their offer, they have sought a larger store at Glasgow Road to meet this growing demand for many years, however, despite investigating the potential to extend this store, it has become clear that this is not possible due to the space constraints of the site. The business has therefore taken the difficult decision to relocate within the city and close the Glasgow Road store.

The proposed replacement store at Necessity Brae, in the south of the city, will allow Aldi to deliver a larger offer, to improve their range and choice of products and better meet the growing needs of the Perth community. The proposal will also lead to further jobs and investment into the city.

Aldi consulted on the proposals during December 2020 and January 2021, receiving over 340 responses from the public, with approximately 64% of respondents indicating their support. This was then followed by the formal submission of a planning application to Perth and Kinross Council in February 2021.

Since then we have been working to respond to a range of comments from the Council and Historic Environment Scotland on different aspects of the scheme. As a result of these, new advice was commissioned from landscape architects and biodiversity experts (amongst others) to further improve the scheme. This has resulted in some significant changes to the development proposals that were formally re-submitted for consideration in December 2021. These improvements include:

  • Amendments to the proposed materials for the Aldi store design, replacing the previous contemporary architectural panelling in silver and anthracite grey with vertically laid timber cladding to help the store blend in better to the existing landscape. In addition, the proposed grey roof has been replaced with green panels to protect long-distance views from the A-listed Aviva building.
  • A commitment to install a new pedestrian crossing over Necessity Brae to enable improved and safer walking access to the store for people living in the local area.
  • Substantially redesigned landscaping across the site to improve the range of planting so that it complements existing species and leads to improved biodiversity.
  • Tree removals on site have been comprehensively reviewed with more now being retained, alongside a commitment to plant 109 new trees of varying maturity, which will result in more trees being than removed through the development.
  • Landscaping to the south-west (including beyond the site) has been re-designed through micro-siting of new trees to help screen the development from views from the Aviva building.
  • Changes to the boundary treatments of the site, including the removal of the 1.8m fence on the eastern site boundary, so that the development seamlessly blends into the Buckie Braes.
  • A range of biodiversity enhancement measures including new bird and bat boxes, in addition to bee posts across the soft landscaping scheme.

These changes are fully set out within an updated pack of information submitted for the planning application comprising:

  • Revised pack of application plans to reflect the amendments
  • Updated Design and Access Statement
  • Heritage Assessment
  • Landscaping Design Statement
  • Ecological Mitigation and Enhancement Strategy

For more details on the changes, please visit the Perth and Kinross Council planning portal at: https://planningapps.pkc.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=QONWV8MKJS600

If you have any questions, please contact oliver.munden@avisonyoung.com.

CGI of proposed store - Revised Scheme
Site plan of proposed store - Revised Scheme
Drone CGI of proposed store - Revised Scheme
Site location plan