Supermarket giant Lidl is applying for planning permission in order to enlarge its Mosta supermarket and replace a concrete factory adjacent to it with an extended car park.
An application filed with the Planning Authority by Lidl Immobiliare Malta shows that the company is seeking to make minor alterations to the already existing supermarket together with a hefty extension in its size.
It is also applying to demolish the adjacent Rite Mix Ltd concrete factory and replace it with more parking spaces and a storage facility and offices.
The extension of the supermarket will see the total floor area increase from 1,580 square metres to 2,470 square metres – an increase of 56%.
The demolition of the concrete factory had already been approved by the Planning Authority back in 2021, with the permit remaining valid until 2026. Rite Mix Ltd itself had filed that planning application, but it appears that since then ownership of the site had moved to the Italian supermarket giant.
The current supermarket car park has 173 parking spaces for vehicles, but under the new proposal this will increase to 285 – an upswing of 112 spaces.
A new entry and exit for the car park is planned for Triq in-Naggar, which will run almost perpendicular to the main road of Triq id-Difiza Civili.
Infrastructural works would be required, as Triq in-Naggar currently does not connect to the main road, but the plans show that the road – which used to stop at the gates of Rite Mix’s factory – will be extended to connect to the newly built roundabout on Triq id-Difiza Civili.
A 1,250 square metre independent storage facility which will also include some offices is also envisioned for on the site of the concrete factory.
The application is currently awaiting recommendation by the Planning Authority’s case officer, but has received a no objection from the Environment & Resources Authority (ERA) which said that the extensions to the supermarket and car park are limited to an area which is already covered by previous permits.
“Therefore, and given the site context and location, no environmental concerns are envisaged re the proposal,” the ERA said as it found no objection to the project from an environmental point of view.
Enemalta also said that it had no objection to the proposal.
Planning permission for the building of the Mosta supermarket was granted in 2016 and it replaced another concrete brick manufacturing plant at the time. Standing on the opposite side of the road to MCAST’s Mosta college, the supermarket was Lidl’s seventh after it opened its doors in the country in 2008.
Lidl currently operates a network of 10 supermarkets in Malta and Gozo, which is set to increase with the opening of an outlet in Zebbug – which was controversial for partly being set on Outside Development Zone land – and another in Qormi next year.