Councillors refused the Lidl and M&S scheme off the Formby Bypass against officers' advice. The council's own consultants put the village's trade loss at 15.9%.

Sefton Council has refused the scheme for a Lidl, a Marks & Spencer Foodhall, two drive-thrus and a medical centre on farmland off the Formby Bypass. The refusal notice was issued on Thursday 17 September 2026, the day after the Planning Committee met (refusal notice, DC/2024/02165).

Councillors went against their own planning officers to do it. The Chief Planning Officer’s report to the committee had recommended approval, and concluded that there would be “no severe adverse impacts on Formby District Centre” (Planning Committee report).

Formby is about seven miles down the coast from Southport, and the site is 12.6 hectares of land north of Formby Industrial Estate, on the east side of the A565.

The two reasons the council gave

The notice, signed by Chief Planning Officer Derek McKenzie, gives two reasons. Neither is a technicality.

The first is transport. The applicant “has failed to demonstrate that the proposed development would be appropriately served by sustainable transport infrastructure and measures”, so the development “would be likely to increase reliance on private car travel and would not promote sustainable accessibility”. That is judged contrary to Local Plan policies EQ3 and IN2.

The second is the village centre. The scheme, “by reason of the scale of retail floorspace proposed, would result in significant adverse impacts on the vitality and viability of Formby District Centre, through the unacceptable diversion of trade and expenditure from existing businesses, reducing the centre’s ability to maintain its retail function and role within the borough’s retail hierarchy”. That is judged contrary to Local Plan policy ED2 and to national planning policy.

The number the officers published and approved anyway

The second reason lands on ground the council had already surveyed. Sefton commissioned its own retail consultants, Lambert Smith Hampton, to test the applicant’s figures, and their findings are set out in the committee report.

  • The total impact on Formby’s retail turnover: -15.9%.
  • The impact on convenience goods turnover in Formby District Centre, counting the already consented Sainsbury’s Local on Liverpool Road: -25.6%.
  • The impact on comparison goods turnover: -2.6%.

The consultants were explicit about where most of that comes from. The most notable diversion of trade from the centre would happen “chiefly as a result of the relocation of M&S from its current store in The Cloisters”.

The two stores’ own projected convenience turnover had already been revised down during the application. The 2024 retail statement put it at £12.12m for Lidl and £15.41m for M&S, £27.53m together. By the May 2026 technical note that had fallen to £8.7m for Lidl and £13.94m for M&S, £22.64m together, which the report attributes to revised estimates from the data firm GlobalData.

Officers still recommended approval. Their reasoning was that Formby remains a vital and viable centre, that it keeps Waitrose on Three Tuns Lane as its principal foodstore, and that no evidence had been submitted to suggest the proposal would damage that store’s trading position.

The draft conditions tell you how closely they were watching the same risk. Conditions 33, 34 and 35 would have capped the M&S at 2,006 square metres gross and the Lidl at 2,185 square metres gross, capped each store’s convenience and comparison sales areas separately, and banned either unit from being subdivided. The stated reason for all three was identical: “To safeguard the vitality and viability of Formby District Centre.”

Timeline for application DC/2024/02165: validated 16 January 2025; retail turnover forecasts cut to 22.64 million pounds in May 2026; officers advise approval and the committee refuses on 16 September 2026; refusal notice issued 17 September 2026; appeal deadline 17 March 2027.

Who objected

The report records objections from properties on fifteen Formby streets, including Phillips Lane, Halsall Lane, Raven Meols Lane, Gores Lane and Bushbys Park. It also records letters of support from another eleven, on grounds that the scheme would bring jobs, spending and a doctors’ surgery.

Three bodies objected on the record:

  • Formby Parish Council, on flood risk, survey effort for protected species, mitigation detail and the choice of piling method.
  • Formby Civic Society, which said a retail-led development would undermine the district centre and cause long-established shops to close, and that the scheme was contrary to the Local Plan and to the Inspector’s findings at the Local Plan examination.
  • United Utilities, on the proximity of the proposed drainage to its water main and easement.

Two supermarket operators made representations against it. Tesco said the proposal would have a significant adverse impact on Formby District Centre and that retail was inappropriate on an allocated employment site. Waitrose said it would draw significant trade from the centre.

On the transport side, the council’s own Highways Manager told the committee the site “was not sustainable” and sought connections beyond those in the Local Plan allocation. Active Travel England wanted more detail on mode share targets, the crossing at the access junction, wayfinding, lighting and cycle parking. The Liverpool City Region asked the developer to pay £200,000 a year for five years for an extra vehicle on the local bus network. National Highways did not object.

The application went to committee rather than being decided by officers for a procedural reason the report states plainly: it was a major application with more than five representations contrary to the recommendation.

What was actually proposed

The application, reference DC/2024/02165, was validated on 16 January 2025. It was a hybrid, seeking full permission for some phases and outline permission for others. The full elements were:

  • a signal controlled junction on the Formby Bypass, with footways and cycle paths
  • an estate road, internal roundabout, substations, drainage, a pumping station and landscaping
  • two food stores
  • one drive-thru

The outline elements were a minimum of 7.58 hectares of employment uses, further infrastructure, a second drive-thru and a community medical centre.

The site is allocated as a Strategic Employment Location in Sefton’s 2017 Local Plan. Had it been approved, a section 106 agreement would have required at least 3,716 square metres, or 40,000 square feet, of employment floorspace to be delivered within five years of either food store opening, plus local labour procurement, off-site highway works and biodiversity net gain.

The applicant is Sefton and Formby Developments Limited, of Stephenson Way, Formby. The agent is Plan A (North West) Limited, of Aughton Road, Southport.

What it means for you

If you shop in Formby village, nothing changes. The M&S in The Cloisters stays where it is for now, and the farmland north of the industrial estate stays farmland.

It is not necessarily over. The applicant has six months from 17 September, so until 17 March 2027, to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. An inspector would consider the same two reasons, and the council would have to defend a refusal its own officers advised against, which is a weaker position than a refusal officers recommended.

Watch the ground the refusal was won on. The transport reason is the more fragile of the two, because the site is an allocated employment site that a Planning Inspector already found sound. The retail reason rests on the council’s own consultants’ figure of a 15.9% hit to the village’s turnover, which is unusual in that the authority is now relying on evidence its officers read as acceptable.

We wrote about this scheme before the vote, when the recommendation was approval.

The minutes of the 16 September meeting have not yet been published, so the voting figures are not on the record. We will add them when they appear. You can follow the borough’s decisions on our Southport planning news page, and Sefton’s Planning Committee meets next on 14 October.

Sources