Former Aldi Colchester site could become new community hub

The lower floor of the Kingsland Church building, in London Road, has been vacant for more than two years.

Formerly home to Aldi, an application has now gone in to transform the premises into a community centre.

The proposal relates to the existing ground floor of the premises at 84-86 London Road.

If approved, the centre would have a number of rooms available for use by and in support of the community.

These include various meeting rooms, a kitchen, therapy suite and more.

A planning statement reads: “The existing café, dance studios and meeting rooms at first floor are already well-used by the public and a great number of non-profit community groups.

Supermarket - the London Road site used to be home to Aldi (Image: Google)

“This application is to extend the range of services and facilities across the ground floor.”

While the application is for a change of use for part of the ground floor, there will also be some external changes.

These include creating a small number of new window openings, new side entrance with accessible ramp and handrailing.

There will also be changes to signage to update the building’s appearance, a new glazed entrance canopy to the existing main entrance and installation of photovoltaic panels on the south and west roof slopes.

The hub will also become a “fully accessible building with a reduced carbon footprint”, offering “much-needed and valuable services to the community”.

The first floor, which is occupied by Kingsland Church, will remain unaffected by the application, as will the ground floor kitchen retail premises trading as IKAS.

The former Aldi store was closed and replaced by the brand new store now at Stane Retail Park in Stanway.

Olympic champion Beth Shriever cut the ribbon alongside pupils from Friars Grove Primary School in November 2021, with the site seeing consistent success since.