A major supermarket giant is set to finally open its long-delayed store after rival Tesco tried to stop it from going ahead.
The new £9m Aldi in Neats Court, Queenborough, was due to welcome its first customers in April.
But road access permission meant the opening date had to be pushed back.
KentOnline can now reveal that the German retailer plans to open in July.
It hasn’t confirmed an exact date, but it’s understood it will release closer to the time and wants to open as soon as possible.
The delays stemmed from legal discussions over access to the supermarket, which will be off the A249 roundabout, Thomsett Way.
National Highways has been working with Aldi since around 2022 and the scheme was given technical approval earlier this year with an agreement signed in May.
New aerial footage shows progress on the new store, which has created 40 jobs.
Around 30 staff from the Sheerness store, which will close when the new supermarket opens, are to be transferred.
Another retailer, Home Bargains, will take over the existing Aldi unit between Pepys Avenue and Millennium Way.
The Neats Court branch will be a third larger than the town center store with 134 parking spaces – 59 more than in Sheerness. It will also have a new cycle and pedestrian connection.
Aldi is investing £18m across the county in opening new stores and refurbishing older ones, such as the planned expansion of its Sittingbourne branch on East Street.
Planning permission to build a new store on the island was granted by Swale Council in December 2022.
Aldi submitted the plans in June 2019 after saying its 15-year-old branch in Sheerness was “no longer fit for purpose”. Negotiations with the authority began in 2017.
It was given the go-ahead in November 2020, but construction was halted when supermarket rival Tesco’s permit was quashed at the High Court the following October.
Tesco claimed that the impact of the proposals on Sheerness town center had not been sufficiently considered, that the decision to grant permission was “procedurally incorrect” as there was no screening to determine whether an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was needed and that irregularities in the planning committee’s decision-making.
However, Aldi argued that an EIA was not needed because the site is zoned for large-scale uses in the borough’s local plan.
A spokesman for the supermarket later revealed a new retail impact assessment had been carried out, which found the store’s relocation would have “no impact on Sheerness town center or other centers that would require refusal”.
By this point, Aldi had already put their old site on the market for £2 million and resubmitted plans in November 2022.
Planners recommended the application be refused, saying the closure of the current store would have a detrimental impact on the town.
But Aldi has warned the council that its existing site is too small and will close even if its plans for a new store are rejected.
To view additional planning applications and other public notices for your area, click here.
Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson said “rejecting Aldi’s application, which incidentally has already been approved once, will have an impact on jobs and the wider Sheppey community”.
He added that it would be “illogical” as the retailer had made it clear it was leaving Sheerness and that Home Bargains would have a “positive impact” on the town and the Island “as a whole”.
In December 2022 councilors voted 14 to one to allow the resubmitted plans.