Sturminster Newton Aldi: Council Expert Doubts Impact Data

Dorset Council’s own retail consultant has told the council that the evidence behind Aldi’s planning application in Sturminster Newton is out of date, and that redoing it properly could show a bigger effect on the town centre than the applicant has claimed.

The advice is now on the council’s planning register. It was written on 5 June and published as a consultee response on 17 August. The application itself is still undecided.

Aldi Stores Limited wants to build a foodstore on land at North Dorset Business Park, Rolls Mill Way, about two kilometres from the town centre. The application is P/FUL/2026/00624, lodged through the agent Avison Young and made valid on 2 April 2026. Its status on the register on 18 September is “under officer consideration”. No committee date has been set.

What the council’s consultant said

Dorset Council asked Lambert Smith Hampton to review the Planning and Retail Statement submitted with the application. That statement is the document that has to show the store will not do unacceptable harm to existing town centres.

The reviewer’s finding on the central point is blunt:

Clearly, the market shares are too out of date to inform an impact assessment, particularly given the significant economic impacts that have taken place and structural changes within the retail sectors.

The problem is the evidence base. The applicant’s consultants relied on the 2022 Dorset Retail and Leisure Study. That study was itself built on household telephone surveys carried out for earlier work in 2017 and 2018. The review notes the applicant “should have been aware” the surveys were nearly 10 years old when the assessment was prepared.

A newer study exists. The 2026 Dorset Retail, Leisure and Town Centres Study Update was finalised and submitted to the council in April 2026, and is publicly available. Lambert Smith Hampton compared the two:

For Sturminster Newton in particular, there is a considerable difference in the turnover values, which if PP’s trade diversion estimates are roughly applied to the 2026 Retail Study turnover for Sturminster Newton would result in an impact value that is more than is significantly higher and raises concerns on the potential impact on the town centre.

The sentence is garbled in the original, but its direction is not. Run the same sums against the newer evidence and the predicted hit to Sturminster Newton town centre goes up.

The review calls this “the most pressing issue” and says it “needs to be discussed with PP as a matter of urgency and a decision made on how to move forward”. It adds: “It is our position that the 2022 Retail Study market shares cannot be relied upon now that we have new evidence.”

Two passages in the same document refer to a Co-op store in “Colne Town Centre”, a town in Lancashire, and to a consultancy called “Nexus” rather than the applicant’s consultants. Those look like text carried over from other work.

What else the consultant queried

The review is described as Stage 1 advice, aimed at testing method rather than reaching a conclusion. Several other points were raised:

• The search for alternative sites. The applicant looked only in and around Sturminster Newton. The reviewer accepted that, noting discount stores already exist in Gillingham, Shaftesbury and Blandford Forum, and that drive-time analysis puts Sherborne outside the site’s catchment.
• How flexible the applicant was prepared to be. Alternative sites were tested against a store 10 per cent smaller than the one proposed and 15 per cent less parking, without stating what that meant in site area. The reviewer pointed out that Aldi’s published requirements are a minimum 0.8 hectare site, a minimum store of 1,672 square metres and more than 100 parking spaces, and that those should be the thresholds applied.
• Investment plans. The applicant identified none in the affected centres. The council “may wish to confirm that this is the case”.
• Sales density. The figures were taken from a 2024 dataset at 2020 prices. The reviewer asked for them to be refreshed.

The health checks on Sturminster Newton, Blandford Forum, Gillingham, Shaftesbury and Sherborne were accepted as “appropriately comprehensive”, and the assumptions about where the store’s trade would come from were judged reasonable.

The pavement that is not there

The retail evidence is not the only part of the application that has been challenged from within.

Newton Residents Association objected on 24 August. Its central complaint is that the applicant’s documents describe a walking route into town that does not exist. The Design and Access Statement says pedestrian and cycle access is supported by the site’s closeness to the town, flat landscape and links to the North Dorset Trailway. The association says:

• There is no continuous pavement between the site and the town centre.
• There is no link from the site to the North Dorset Trailway.
• The route into town runs over Bridge Street and Newton Hill, both of which involve a steep climb.
• The “uncontrolled crossing” on Glue Hill named in the Transport Assessment is a pair of dropped kerbs, with no lights or markings.
• The pavement on the south side of the A357 is in places one person wide, ices over in winter and is poorly lit.
• The footpaths offered as an alternative flood and become unusable for weeks.

The association also points to the Sturminster Newton Neighbourhood Plan, adopted in 2019, which supported development of this land for employment uses only if all-weather pedestrian and cycle routes were provided linking the site to the town and the Trailway. Those routes have not been built.

The Highway Authority accepted the point four days later. In its response of 28 August it wrote that it had received the association’s comments and “we agree with the NRA’s description of the pedestrian network and have sought improvements as part of the development”.

What the Highway Authority decided

Dorset Council’s Highway Authority raised no objection, subject to conditions. Its reasoning:

• The Transport Assessment is “satisfactory and robust”.
• The store could generate up to 96 vehicle movements in the morning peak and 194 in the evening peak, which it called acceptable.
• The residual cumulative impact “cannot be thought to be ‘severe’” under paragraphs TR3 and TR6 of the National Planning Policy Framework of August 2026.
• The separate A357 access, historically a depot entrance, would take deliveries and keep lorries out of the car park, which is “welcomed”.

It is seeking pedestrian improvements as conditions: a tactile uncontrolled crossing where the new footway ends, an upgrade of the public right of way north of the A357 to a two metre hard surface, staggered barriers to stop people walking straight onto the road, and a crossing with a two metre central refuge. The A357 carriageway there was measured at 8.0 metres. A lower speed limit has not been proposed, though the authority says one “may be appropriate if additional pedestrian crossing facilities can be provided”.

Sturminster Newton Town Council supports it

The town council backed the application on 23 April, with reservations. Its comment on the register reads in full:

The Town Council support this application subject to the comments of Dorset Highways, and that pedestrian access is considered. There needs to be robust discussions between Aldi and Dorset Council.

What it means for you

Nothing is decided. The application is still with the case officer, there is no committee date, and the register carries more than 190 documents, most of them comments from residents.

If you want to follow it or comment, the file is public. Search Dorset Council’s planning register for P/FUL/2026/00624. You will have to accept the site’s disclaimer before the search works. Comments already submitted stay on the file, and the council publishes names and addresses with them.

Two things are worth watching. The first is whether the applicant redoes the retail impact assessment on the 2026 study, as the council’s consultant asked in June. That work had not appeared on the register by 18 September. The second is whether the pedestrian improvements the Highway Authority wants are secured as conditions, or left to a later agreement.

If the application does go to committee, the meeting papers will be published on the council’s website in advance. Our Dorset planning news page tracks decisions across the county, and Dorset house prices covers what the market is doing in the Blackmore Vale.

Frequently asked questions

Has the Sturminster Newton Aldi been approved?

No. Planning application P/FUL/2026/00624 was still under officer consideration on 18 September 2026, with no decision issued and no committee date set. It was made valid on 2 April 2026.

Where would the Sturminster Newton Aldi be built?

On land at North Dorset Business Park, Rolls Mill Way, about two kilometres from the town centre, with servicing taken from a separate existing access onto the A357.

Why has the council’s consultant questioned the application?

Lambert Smith Hampton reviewed the applicant’s Planning and Retail Statement and found it relied on the 2022 Dorset Retail and Leisure Study, itself based on shopper surveys from 2017 and 2018. Its advice was that “the market shares are too out of date to inform an impact assessment”, and that using the 2026 study instead would raise the predicted impact on Sturminster Newton town centre.

Did Sturminster Newton Town Council object?

No. The town council supported the application on 23 April 2026, subject to the comments of Dorset Highways and to pedestrian access being considered.

How can I comment on the application?

Search for P/FUL/2026/00624 on Dorset Council’s planning register and use the online comments facility on the application page. The council publishes commenters’ names and addresses.

Sources

• Dorset Council planning register, application P/FUL/2026/00624, Land at North Dorset Business Park, Rolls Mill Way, Sturminster Newton, checked 18 September 2026. Applicant Aldi Stores Limited, agent Avison Young, valid 2 April 2026, status “under officer consideration”.
• Consultee response on the same register, “Lambert, Smith and Hampton - consultants preliminary review of planning and retail statement”, dated 17 August 2026, containing advice written on 5 June 2026.
• Consultee response, “Newton Residents Association”, dated 24 August 2026.
• Consultee response, “DC - Highways”, dated 28 August 2026, including the Highway Authority recommendation, conditions and its agreement with the residents association’s account of the pedestrian network.
• Consultee comment, Sturminster Newton Town Council, received 23 April 2026.