The new Aldi planned for Yate has had its delivery hours agreed after local residents opposed the original request.

To prevent residents being disturbed at unsociable hours, deliveries were initially restricted to the hours between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week.

But site owner Harmsworth Pension Funds Trustees later tried to extend them by 15 hours a week, saying Aldi needed to have fresh produce delivered earlier and later so it could “trade viably”.

The committee granted extended delivery hours, but limited the new hours to between 7.30am and 9pm on Mondays through Saturdays, and from 9am to 4pm on Sundays.

These hours were considered “reasonable” by council officers who recommended them for approval.

South Gloucestershire Council approved plans in February last year allowing a discount food store to move into half of the B&Q building on Station Road, leaving the DIY store to trade from reduced space.

Yate Town Council, which objected to the application along with six local residents, asked for a number of conditions including requiring refrigeration in refrigerated lorries to be turned off before reaching the site.

Gary Whittington, whose bedroom window is within feet of the delivery yard, said: “Where they say they’re going to have up to two deliveries between seven and eight o’clock in the morning is just horrific.  

“The lorries actually pass within two to three metres of our house. 

“In the summer and spring, we can’t have our windows open because of deliveries. In the winter, we have headlights coming into our bedroom window when the lorries are actually reversing and pulling up. And now this is just going to get worse. I just can’t think that that could be reasonable for an application to affect people’s lives in this way, and will cause, unfortunately, psychological distress and anxiety to local residents.”  

Harmsworth’s offer of acoustic fencing has been made a condition of the planning consent and a delivery management plan must be agreed by the council in liaison with a local councillor. 

The new hours will apply to both B&Q and Aldi once the budget supermarket opens, the meeting heard.