A supermarket’s plans to open a new store on a prime Weymouth industrial site would be too "excessive", say one Weymouth heritage group.

Weymouth Civic Society has spoken out against Aldi’s plans close its existing store at Jubilee Retail Park and open at a new location one mile away at the Weymouth Gateway site on Mercery Road.

Pru Bollam, chairman of the society's planning and environment committee said that the "proposal to be excessive provision for the needs of the area."

She added: "In the interests of good planning for the Weymouth area, the main supermarkets should be distributed more widely around the area to give adequate access to local facilities for residents of the various parts of town.

"In particular Littlemoor is desperately in need of a local food store to serve the large and growing population there.

"Bearing in mind the existence of three other large food stores (Morrisons, Sainsbury, LIDL), as well as Marks & Spencer at the BP filling station."

Under the proposals, which were submitted to Weymouth and Portland Borough Council last month, the proposal would see the new store having 1,650 sqm of floor space along with 100 parking spaces on land at the junction of Dorchester Road and Mercery Road creating 20 new jobs.

Pru added: "Construction of the proposed Aldi store, and linked with it the potential closure of the current store at Jubilee Retail Park, could be to the detriment of those people living within walking distance of the existing store, in the main inner-urban areas of Weymouth."

The Society also expressed concerns for the continued viability of the existing retail outlets in the general Radipole/ Mount Pleasant area if permission was granted for this additional food store.

Weymouth Gateway is currently occupied by a Sainsbury’s, Premier Inn hotel, a Beefeater Grill Restaurant and the head office building for retailer New Look.

The Morrisons store is also nearby and is set to generate more than 1,000 jobs for the local economy once the site is completed.

In response, Aldi said: “Our current store at Jubilee Retail Park is nearly 50 per cent smaller than a typical Aldi; we are unable to provide the full award-winning range that customers have come to expect.

“Therefore, to improve the shopping experience for our Weymouth customers, we would like to replace the existing store with a bigger and better Aldi on Mercery Road in Weymouth.”

“We have now identified a suitable, brownfield site at Mercery Road, off Dorchester Road, owned by London Metric PLC.

"We would like to build a new and improved store here, which will provide easier access, an enhanced layout and increased parking.

“The proposed Aldi store will complement the ‘main-shop’ nature of the large Sainsbury’s and Morrisons superstores in close proximity to the application site.”

The existing store at Jubilee Retail Park opened in 1999 and employs 19 staff with the firm saying that the existing employees will be transferred to the Mercery Road site while an extra 15-20 staff will be taken on – taking the total number of employees at the new store to approximately 35 to 40.