STORE wars have broken out again in Coleford, with rival budget supermarkets Aldi and Lidl both battling to open in the town.

Aldi’s renewed bid to develop an out-of-town brown field site off Tufthorn Avenue comes before Forest planners next Tuesday (April 10), while Lidl has signed a deal to open a store beside the town’s Co-op on Lord’s Hill.

Lidl has also objected “in the strongest possible terms” to the Aldi scheme, saying it will “abandon” its town centre proposal if the Tufthorn plan gets the go ahead.

Midcounties Co-operative successfully challenged the decision to approve the Aldi store last year, with the Forest council forced to pay costs of around £35,000, after a High Court judge said it had failed to fully assess the impact of a new out-of-town supermarket on town centre trade.

Aldi’s 1,804 sq m scheme is back on the agenda at next week’s council planning committee, but officers are recommending refusal, as they did when it was passed in October 2016.

Meanwhile, Lidl says it has agreed terms to build a new store at Pyart Court, on land formerly targeted by Tesco.

Tesco obtained planning permission on appeal in 2013, but dropped its interest in the site the following year amid financial problems.

A Lidl spokesman said: “We are pleased to confirm that terms have been agreed to bring a new Lidl store to Lord’s Hill in Coleford. As a result, we have submitted a pre-application enquiry to the Forest of Dean District Council.”

Midcounties Co-operative has persistently opposed rival supermarkets opening close to its Forest stores, and many shoppers in Coleford were furious when it took court action to halt Aldi’s Tufthorn Avenue plan.

But it is unlikely to stop Lidl opening, Tesco having already secured planning permission for the vacant Pyart Court site, alongside five other retail units.

Coleford Town Council has called for another store in the town, claiming it would bring more people into the centre to shop, boosting trade by nearly £6m a year.

Forest planning officers are backing the Lord’s Hill town centre scheme while opposing the Aldi bid, saying the former is a “sequentially preferable site” to the Tufthorn Avenue plan.

Aldi claims that the town centre space is too small for its store, while planning officials claim it is a “similar size”.

Confirming Lidl’s intention to open a store, the company’s senior acquisition consultant, Ian O’Gorman, said: “An agreement between Lidl UK and P&D Builders has been reached in relation to the Lord’s Hill site.”

Objecting to the Aldi scheme, he said there was “insufficient expenditure” in the Coleford area to support two new convenience stores.

“An Aldi consent would seriously prejudice the likelihood of a plan-led foodstore development at Lord’s Hill. I can confirm that Lidl will abandon the proposed regeneration of the Lord’s Hill site in the event that Aldi’s Tufthorn Avenue proposal is consented,” he told Forest planners.