Full meeting replay

Below is a full replay of the whole meeting, and clips of each question.  We will update these pages with more details in the next couple of days, and let everyone who registered for the meeting know when we have been able to produce the notes.

Orchard meeting Clips:

We invited residents to submit questions they’d like us to ask, and then we worked through the questions to group them into sections, and formulated the overall questions below, so that we could produce a list to put to Lidl:

Q1: Location

The Orchard site is neither part of an out of town commercial area, nor near the centre of the transport hub of Ruislip.  It is within a residential area and seems smaller than other nearby stores – with no flexibility for expansion in the future.

1. What was Lidl’s criteria in selecting this site?
2. Please provide a comparison of the size of the proposed store and number of parking spaces against the stores at Pinner, South Ruislip and Uxbridge (Uxbridge having no dedicated parking spaces).

Q2: Heritage

The Cultural and Heritage Assessment in your application states, “The proposals do indicate the desire to retain the monument, moving it to a memorial garden in the S of the site. However, much of the significance of the memorial is derived from its location next to the Orchard, a public house frequented by members of the 303 squadron during the Second World War. As such, the significance of the memorial is enhanced by the presence of the Orchard and its demolition would mean much of the context surrounding the statue and its location would be lost.”

1. How do you justify demolishing a historical building and relocating the locally listed Spitfire memorial to a small garden by the side of a public pavement and busy road?
2. Do you intend to keep the same memorial Spitfire and stone?  The renderings in the plans do not show the stone and do not show the original model Spitfire.

Q3: Conservation / design of the building

The site is within the Ruislip Village Conservation Area where developments are expected to preserve or enhance the character or appearance of the area, exploit opportunities to restore any lost features and resist the loss of buildings. The street scene is predominantly residential characterised with mature garden hedges and trees that give the area a green and sylvan appearance’.

1. How will the proposed building design and landscaping plans align with the character of surrounding houses and gardens to make a positive contribution to the character and appearance of the Conservation Area?
2. Why hasn’t Lidl considered retaining the exterior of the existing building?

Q4: Transport modes

The site is not near the main transport hub at Ruislip station where all of the bus routes stop.  Three local buses serve Ickenham Road: the U1 (not U2!), 278 and E7. Many parts of Ruislip will not be on a direct bus route. The corner of the site at the junction of Sharps Lane and Ickenham Road is proposed to be reopened for a pedestrian entrance – but this entry point was closed by Beefeater many years ago as it was so dangerous.

1. What proportion of customers are assumed to arrive by car, public transport, bike or walk?
2. How do you intend to make the access to the site safe for pedestrians and cyclists?
3. How do you intend to provide a safe crossing to the bus stop on the other side of the road where the pavement is very narrow and has no space for a bus stand?

Q5: Transport survey

The transport assessment in your application indicates that turning counts were conducted on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th May 2024 respectively at the stated junctions.

1. What was the criteria for choosing those dates, and how were the times of day chosen for the study?
2. Were the length of traffic queues in Church Avenue, Ickenham Road, Kingsend and Wood Lane towards the White Bear roundabout included in the analysis, as well as the queues lengths along Long Lane from the A40 towards Ickenham?
3. Have peak traffic flows on different times of day and different days of the week been investigated to fully understand when peak congestion tends to take place –  and if so, for how long, in order to consider how to avoid deliveries taking place at those critical times etc?

Q6: Deliveries

Most supermarkets have different entrances for deliveries and customers. One vehicle access is proposed at this site.

1. How will customers be kept safe in the car park if up to four 16.5m artic vehicles arrive every day and traverse the car park?
2. At what times of day will the delivery vehicles arrive?
3. Can Lidl ensure that arrival times will not be at peak traffic flow times and unsociable hours to minimise the impact on the already busy road network and disruption to neighbouring residents, and avoid disruption to traffic in the road backing up from behind towards the roundabout ?

Q7: Traffic & congestion

Changes to the road layout

1. What planned changes are you proposing to the road layout?

Avoidance of further Congestion

1. What measures have been considered to avoid increased congestion?
2. Won’t the new bus stop location nearer to the White Bear Roundabout cause more vehicles to back up towards the roundabout causing more general congestion and safety issues for pedestrians?

Q8 Impact on neighbourhood

How will the impacts to local residents in the form of noise, light nuisance, litter and pollution and more surface water be mitigated?

Q9: Environment & ecological issues

The Ecological Appraisal submitted in the application says “The development has the potential to adversely impact valuable ecological features”.

1. What is the Biodiversity Net Gain for the proposals?
2. Will the building have sustainable features?
3. Will the car park be SuDs compliant?

Q10: Reliability of submissions

The U2 bus runs between Hillingdon and Uxbridge and comes nowhere near Ruislip, Northwood is not in a different Borough, deliveries can’t be made from Park Lane because there is no such road in Ruislip, and the whole plan is handled under the title “Orchard Inn” despite that name never having been used locally.

How can Ruislip residents take seriously both the proposals you make and your assertions that a new memorial would mark the historical significance to the Second World War of the original building, when there are inaccuracies throughout, and when the German supermarket’s proposals don’t even use the building’s correct name?