Planning approved for new click-and-collect facility at Hereford Tesco

Plans to introduce a click-and-collect facility beside Hereford’s main Tesco supermarket have drawn a cool reception locally.

Britain’s biggest retailer applied in October for planning permission to install the new covered area within the car park of its Belmont Road store on the southwest edge of the city.

The four-bay, 70-square-metre area was to be covered by a twin canopy on steel posts, protected by 23 black bollards and linked to two existing click-and-collect bays immediately alongside the store.

But Belmont Rural Parish Council said that at 3.7 metres in height and in red, the canopy would be “out of character with the surrounding area”, and would be “too close to residential properties and can clearly be seen from the flats opposite”.

The loss of 16 parking spaces would meanwhile “have a detrimental impact on customers shopping in the store”, the parish councillors said.

But there were no public or technical objections to Tesco’s proposal.

Planning officer Josh Bailey said he had made “proactive attempts” to get Tesco to change the canopy colour to blue to match the hand car wash operation nearby.

But he was persuaded that the proposed red, “carefully selected to ensure clear visibility and association with the brand identity”, was “not unduly incongruous” so long as it had a matt finish and was not illuminated.

Full planning permission was granted.

Tesco currently offers click-and-collect from around 300 of its supermarkets, according to retail analysts Nielsen, which says traditional retailers “can compete with the likes of Amazon by using their network of stores as micro-fulfilment centres”.