Lidl has won permission for a ninth supermarket in Oxfordshire, with South Oxfordshire District Council allowing the store on Abingdon Road in Didcot. The Cotswolds-linked approval follows objections over flooding and moves the proposal from planning paper to a permitted scheme.
The plan was first submitted in 2024. Planning officers said the proposals largely accord with planning policies and let Lidl proceed subject to conditions, leaving the project able to advance on a previously developed site rather than remain stalled in review.
Didcot Town Council objections
Didcot Town Council objected because it said the plan lacked flood-risk mitigation measures. Oxfordshire County Council said there was insufficient information. Didcot Town Council also said there are several flooding incidents in the area, especially when the Marsh Bridge water pumps fail.
Planning officers then granted permission after saying those issues had now been addressed by Lidl. They also said the site is currently in a dilapidated state and that the proposals represent a significant improvement on the current underutilisation of the site and on its appearance.
Abingdon Road site
For people in Didcot, the practical change is that the supermarket can now move ahead on Abingdon Road if the conditions attached to permission are met. The decision also ends the uncertainty around whether the council would accept a scheme on land officials described as previously developed and underused.
The remaining point of interest is the flood-risk handling itself. The council has accepted that Lidl addressed the issues raised, but the permission does not spell out in the facts provided what those measures are, so the drainage and mitigation conditions will be the part most closely tied to the site’s next steps.
