Lidl have come under fire from councillors in Richmond, after it emerged the plans for a school they are building on top of a store did not meet required security and safety standards.

They recently discovered the need for additional fire safety requirements for the building because it was near to an electricity substation, which had not been included in the original plans, approved by the council in 2017.

At this week’s planning committee (October 30) a number of councillors challenged the applicant on this oversight, which meant they had to redesign the building to remove the glazed stair core and rear escape. 

Councillor Martin Elengorn wanted to know why the fire safety requirements for the substation were not originally considered:

“It’s a school. One might have thought it would have been considered at the first stage,” he said.

Cllr Richard Baker added: “It does seem a shame that the only redeeming feature of this sort of bunker, the glass element, has disappeared. That seems to be because suddenly a substation was found close to it and there was a blast factor. Should that not have been picked up earlier?”

Jamie Sullivan, a planning agent representing the supermarket at the meeting, said the changes had been made to meet the relevant standards in full. 

He said it was “common” for larger projects to go through a design refinement process, and emphasised that construction was already well-underway and the new plans needed to be approved to open Deer Park School on time for September 2020. 

“Failure to approve this will result in another year in temporary accommodation at significant additional cost to Richmond council and taxpayers,” he said.

Despite concerns the revised plans were approved 7-0, with one abstention.