Green light for 24/7 ASDA deliveries as 60 jobs created to help with surge of online ordering

Plans to allow 24/7 deliveries to and from a Wrexham supermarket have been given the go ahead.

Asda, located on Holt Road, has been taking over night deliveries since the start of the pandemic after changes were introduced by the government.

The supermarket had been seeking permission to extend this provision on a temporary basis until the end of 2021.

Speaking at last night’s meeting Alan Jones, head of Asda’s local government team, said the demand for online deliveries at the Wrexham store had “quadrupled” due to the change in shopping habits caused by the pandemic.

Mr Jones added: “By extending the delivery hours online orders are more accurate and picking can commence earlier through the night when customers aren’t present, which in turn helps with social distancing inside the store.

He explained that an additional 60 jobs had been created in the last 12 months to meet the demand from Wrexham – with the supermarket also offering delivery services to areas such as Bala.

Mr Jones added: “With the huge growth in online demand in Wrexham this store has been taking in night time delivery throughout COVID and has received no complaints from local residents of any disruption.

“If approved today, the number of deliveries over any given 24 hour period won’t increase from what they are today, but it will allow what the store have been doing successfully for the past year to continue.”

However newly elected councillor for Maesydre, Becca Martin, said that concerns had been raised about the potential disruption to nearby residents.

Cllr Martin said: “I do accept that Asda will continue to liaise with myself and residents, and that they will listen and act on any concerns that residents may raise.

“And I also note that delivery is limited to one lorry per night and I’ve been given assurances that this is strictly a temporary measure until the 31st of December 2021 – and any subsequent applications will be subject to noise assessment and additional resident consultation.

“Given that the company only proposes one delivery per night to enable them to supply their delivery shopping service, which starts at 7am, I’d like the committee to consider an additional condition and that is to limit the hours of the deliveries from 5am to midnight.

“I think it’s a sensible compromise, enabling deliveries to take place while ensuring some degree of peace and quiet for residents.”

Commenting on the proposed condition, planning officer David Williams said the plans aren’t “indefinite” and that “we have to accept that there’s going to be a degree of flexibility required if we’re going to return to normality at some point in future.”

He added that during the last 12 months there had been an “extremely low” number of complaints about the overnight deliveries in the last 12 months.

Cllr Dana Davies, Ruabon ward, recommended that the plans for 24/7 deliveries were approved, noting that some people are still wary about going into shops and that “opening up to additional delivery slots has as obviously benefited economically benefited Wrexham because of the additional jobs.”

The plans to allow the temporary provision of 24/7 deliveries at the supermarket were backed my a majority of councillors.