Home Bargains’ plans for a new store in Inverness reach latest milestone with sign application to Highland Council for former Wickes DIY store in Longman industrial estate
Moves to open another Home Bargains superstore in Inverness have reached their latest planning milestone.
The major UK retailer is looking to open an additional outlet in the vacant site of the former Wickes DIY store in Henderson Road.
News of the planned flit first emerged late last year, when documents submitted alongside a change of use application revealed that the new tenant for the building would be Home Bargains.
Further applications confirming the link duly followed and were approved in December, opening the way for the retailer to refit the building.
And now another application has been lodged, this time for the huge signage that will be erected on the building once it is back in use.
Once open, the retail chain plans to sell its usual mix of non-food goods, with up to 30 per cent of the floorspace also being used for food sales.
Its plans for the site also include the creation of a garden centre element within the rear of the building and outside. This is also reflected in the new application for signage on the building - which clearly show Home Bargains’ in-house GardenWorld brand alongside the chain’s main moniker.
Once open the entire site is expected to create up to 60 new jobs.
Documents included with previous applications also indicate that it plans to retain its existing Home Bargain outlet in the nearby Rose Street Retail Park.
In those earlier documents, Home Bargains’ agents, Savills, said: "The existing city centre store does not allow for an outdoor projects area/ garden centre which demonstrates the requirement for a further unit to be provided within the Inverness area.”
A third Home Bargains, this time located in a new-build site in Stratton, is also in the pipeline. The multi-million pound plans for that site won permission back in December by the narrowest of margins, and just two days after its plans for the Wickes site were also greenlit.
The Stratton site, which is expected to represent a £5 million investment and create up to 40 jobs, was passed by south planning applications committee following an incredibly tight vote. The committee were split by eight votes each after an amendment called for planning permission to be rejected and committee chairman, Councillor Paul Oldham, used his casting vote to back the development that is expected to create around 40 jobs.
The plans to operate three separate stores within Inverness comes amid a period of expansion at Home Bargains, which also opened a new purpose-built outlet in Dingwall last year.
Find out more about planning applications that affect you at the Public Notice Portal.
