The ground floor vacant supermarket in Grosvenor Terrace will have 173 individual storage lockers.
Controversial plans to convert a former Lidl supermarket into a self-storage site in Cheltenham have been approved.
Away Cheltenham Ltd has been granted permission to change the use of the ground floor vacant supermarket in Grosvenor Terrace and install 173 individual storage lockers there.
They say these facilities are aimed at serving city centre residents and local businesses who need additional stock room space or furniture and IT storage.
The initial plans included installing a 40ft new shipping container to be used as an office at the site.
However, they amended the scheme to instead install an office which will be built with bricks to match the existing building and it will have vertical timber slats with green rockclad infill to the front.
Several residents had raised concerns that continuous deliveries and unloading would cause noise and disruption.
But the company has agreed to operate from 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and from 10am to 4pm on Sundays.
Council officers said the reduced opening hours should reduce the impact on local residents.
Richard Lanyon, Away Cheltenham founder, said: “We have fully addressed both of the concerns raised by councillors at the previous committee hearing on both opening hours and also the removal of the reception container which has been replaced with a bespoke office. “We are different from other out of town self-storage operators as we specifically offer town centre convenience facilities to cater for residents and businesses alike.
“There is a misconception it is a high footfall industry, it is not. On a busy day the store will receive 15 planned vehicle movements with no noisy HGV articulated lorries manoeuvring which would have served the former Lidl in days gone by.”
Cheltenham Borough Councillor Barbara Clark (Lib Dem, All Saints), who spoke on behalf of local residents, said they were satisfied with the changes.
“I would like it to be recorded that no container will be used for office space and that the opening hours will be reduced to mirror other commercial storage facilities,” she said.
“And that there will be a condition that the unit will never become, under this change of use, a distribution centre for such businesses as Amazon.”
Cheltenham Borough Councillor Paul Baker (LD, Charlton Park) thanked the applicant and the officers for listening to what they said in the previous meeting.
“That’s a good example of planning.”
However, Cheltenham Borough Councillor Bernie Fisher (Lib Dem, Swindon Village) said it was a lost opportunity for the borough council.
“We own the premises. We own the whole block and it was a chance to regenerate within the town,” he said.
