Six residents oppose Lidl selling alcohol 7am to 11pm at its planned Stone store. Hearing 7 October; the planning bid faces three holding objections.

Lidl’s planned supermarket at Horns Cross in Stone goes before a Dartford Borough Council licensing hearing on Wednesday 7 October. The company wants to sell alcohol from 7am to 11pm, seven days a week. Six residents have objected.

The store has not been built, and it does not yet have planning permission. That application has drawn holding objections from Kent County Council’s highways team, its flood team and Stone Town Council. (Licensing Sub-Committee report, 7 October 2026)

The licence application

Lidl Great Britain Ltd applied for a new premises licence for the land at the junction of London Road and Stone Place Road. The application form calls the site “Land at Former Stone Pit 1, Atlas Park”. (Appendix A, the application)

It asks for:

  • sale of alcohol for drinking off the premises only
  • 7am to 11pm, Sunday to Saturday
  • the same 7am to 11pm opening hours

Those hours are a licence ceiling, not a trading timetable. When Lidl applied for planning permission in July, its statement gave the chain’s usual hours as 7am to 10pm Monday to Saturday, with six hours on Sundays. We covered that application in August.

Lidl’s proposed conditions include Challenge 25, a till prompt to confirm ID checks, staff training on proxy sales every six months, and CCTV kept for at least 28 days. (Appendix C, operating schedule)

Who objected, and who did not

No responsible authority objected. The council’s report lists no representation from:

  • Kent Police
  • environmental health
  • planning
  • Kent Fire and Rescue
  • child protection
  • trading standards

Six residents did object, all on 10 September. Their letters are published in Appendix D with the addresses redacted.

Their main points:

  • cheap alcohol would draw street drinking and anti-social behaviour onto nearby roads
  • young people could buy drink, or have it bought for them, and take it into the neighbouring parkland
  • four of the letters say there have been two fires on that land this year
  • litter and broken glass next to a planned country park used by families and dog walkers
  • traffic and waste on Stone Place Road

Two letters also raise the site’s history as landfill, with methane still monitored.

The sub-committee can grant the licence, add or change conditions, or refuse all or part of it. The report reminds councillors they may only do so where that is “appropriate” to promote the four licensing objectives, not “merely because the Sub-Committee considers it desirable”. Councillors Currans, Lampkin and Ridley sit on the panel. (Agenda frontsheet)

Timeline for Lidl's proposed store at Stone Pit 1, Stone: KCC Highways holding objection 25 August 2026, KCC flood team holding objection 28 August, six residents object to the alcohol licence 10 September, Stone Town Council holding objection 16 September, council's retail adviser asks for more work 18 September, licensing hearing 7 October, planning consultation closes 14 October, planning decision target 5 November 2026
The licence and the planning application run on separate tracks. Graphic by Dartford Online from the council's planning register and licensing papers.
Share this chartFacebookWhatsAppX

The planning application is in more trouble

The bigger question is whether the store gets built at all. Since our August report, three bodies have lodged holding objections to planning application 26/00897/FUL. (Planning register, documents tab)

Kent County Council Highways, 25 August. Its response calls its concerns “fundamental”. (KCC Highways response) It says:

  • the new site entrance would sit directly opposite Dulcie Close, against Kent’s own guidance on junction spacing
  • Lidl’s traffic estimates used the wrong comparison stores, including excluding Aldi sites
  • the modelling counts trips from neighbouring shops and homes that have no planning consent
  • even after Lidl’s proposed junction works, three of the four arms of the Stone Place Road and London Road junction would run above 85% of capacity in the 2033 evening peak, the point at which KCC says junctions “start to breakdown”
  • the crossing island on Stone Place Road is too small for a two-stage crossing

Kent County Council’s flood team, 28 August. It recommended a holding objection until Lidl supplies more on surface water drainage. (KCC SuDS response)

Stone Town Council, 16 September. It accepts a store “could offer benefits”, including jobs and more shopping choice. But it objects “in its current form”. (Stone Town Council response) Beyond traffic and drainage, it points out that:

  • the scheme removes 20 of the 24 individual trees and 9 of the 11 tree groups on the site
  • the travel plan offers five years of monitoring, where the neighbourhood plan asks for ten
  • walking and cycling links do not yet meet the neighbourhood plan

The council’s own retail consultants, LSH, have also asked for more work. Their advice of September says the impact on the Horns Cross centre is not properly assessed. The Co-op there is expected to lose more than 9% of its food turnover, and LSH wants to know what that means for the shops around it. (LSH retail advice, September 2026)

A holding objection is not a refusal. It means the body wants more information or changes before it will give a final view.

What it means for you

The licensing hearing is at 2pm on Wednesday 7 October at the Civic Centre in Home Gardens. The council’s hearing rules say it takes place in public. The people who speak are the parties to the hearing: Lidl and those who made representations.

The planning application is still open. The register gives 14 October as the consultation expiry date and 5 November as the target for a decision. If Lidl sends revised traffic or drainage plans, Stone Town Council has asked to be consulted again. You can comment through the planning register. Our Dartford planning applications guide explains how comments are weighed.

Sources