Aldi has announced extra electric car charging points at its new Weymouth store

The company were asked to provide two charge points at the Mercery Road site when planning consent was agreed in December – but have now come back to say they will put in enough charge points for eight vehicles.

Borough planning committee members were delighted with the news and approved the change at their meeting on Wednesday.

Cllr Ian Bruce said he was encouraged that the company had realised that what councillors were saying was logical – given the increased Government push towards electric vehicles and its commitment to tackling climate change.

Cllr Kate Wheller, who has an electric car, also welcomed the decision and said she wished others would follow the Aldi example.

“If you go on the websites people are saying they don’t come to Dorset because they can’t charge their cars very easily.

“I am delighted by this. They are not providing for local drivers but for visitors to the area and people on business who might want to charge up before going home.”

Cllr Jon Orrell, another electric car owner, also welcomed the change to the original application: “We know we have legally binding climate change targets so petrol and diesel cars will be gone in the life of our children. I am very much in favour of this change,” he said.

Aldi intend to build on a currently vacant plot next to the Medisave building, close to both Morrison and Sainsbury which will mean the company closing its store at the Jubilee retail park, near Weymouth rail station, transferring jobs to the new site. It says that if the new store proves to be as successful as the one it opened at Chickerell it will also need to take on extra staff.

The application will include a new bus shelter opposite the store entrance in Mercery Road.

Once the new store was built it will bring the company’s investment in the area to £12million, creating at least 80 jobs with the Weymouth and Chickerell store combined. It is expected to open in early 2020.