Aldi won't give developers a penny until junction is improved

Representatives of Aldi, who are proposing to build a new store in the village of Llay, were giving a presentation to the community council on Wednesday evening.

The plans, which would see a new store being built on land on the corner of the Straight Mile and Gresford Road, are in addition to the Home Farm housing development that will see more than 360 homes built on adjoining land.

Bryn Richards, Property Director for Aldi, said developers Anwyl Homes had made a commitment to improve the Crown crossroads and explained how the supermarket would work with the community to ensure this happened sooner, rather than later.

He said: "We've been in Wrexham now for over 20 years and we've got a good, loyal, customer base here.

"Anwyl have already committed to taking on significant improvement works to the junction, which I know we haven't seen yet, but one thing in our contract with them is that we won't give them one penny until those works have taken place.

"So I feel we can really add the pressure on to the housing company to improve that junction as soon as possible because they know that we want to purchase the land off them.

"I'm hoping we're going to be able to work with Llay's community to make sure those road improvements happen as soon as possible, because we wouldn't want to go to a location where it's going to be a problem for our customers to get on and off the car park; there just wouldn't be any advantage to us.

"Unlike the housing developers, or developers in general, who will just build stores and then sell them on, we want to work with the community and be here for at least the next 30 years."

As well as promises about the future of the crossroads, Mr Richards also spoke about the advantages the new store would bring, such as the 35 new jobs, none of which would be offered on a zero hour contract basis.

He added: "We don't offer zero hour contracts, so these are real jobs. We've also got a very good apprenticeship scheme, which we're very proud of, working with local colleges to provide opportunities.

"We also work with local charities, to ensure any food waste will be donated to local charities, such as food banks and although we often do a lot of this work under the radar, the amount donated is often substantial."

Ian Miller, who is an independent Highways consultant working for Aldi, said the issue of improving the junction was "absolutely key" as "food store developers don't build stores that don't work".

He said: "To put it simply, if you've got congestion at a food store, you go and shop somewhere else.

"We've got to make certain, from an operational perspective, that this store will work, and we can get our customers in and get them out."

Mr Miller explained how a detailed traffic assessment had been carried out using detailed junction modelling to predict the amount of traffic using the crossroads over the next five years, but stressed how they had been undertaken on the basis of the improvement works being completed.

He added: "I've said to my client (Aldi) right from the outset that you cannot go there unless that mitigation scheme (junction improvements) is delivered.

"That means either you'll have to deliver it or the house builders will have to, so we will not go there until such time that has been done."

Mr Miller also gave an overview of how the upgraded junction will work, including how the addition of a second lane on the Straight Mile and modern "smart" traffic lights will replace the current ones that work on a "fixed-time" basis.

He said: "At the moment, you will get a certain amount of time to get through the green light. The new signals are intelligent signals and they learn about the traffic movements and they respond to them."

As part of the improved junction, Mr Miller stated that the developer would also be installing very clever microprocessors, which despite costing in excess of £30,000 each, would improve on the results gained via the assessment by some 12 percent, and dramatically reduce waiting times.