Here are the biggest local planning stories from the past week.

Lidl Blocked

Plans to build a new Lidl supermarket in Balsall Common have been thrown out by council planners as an application for an Aldi on the opposite side of the road was given the green light.

Lidl's plans would have seen a new supermarket with 1,411 square metres of retail space, a 120-space car park and a new 'half-roundabout-type' junction created to the eastern side of Kenilworth Road.

But planning officers at Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) refused the application in October, saying it would be inappropriate use of the green belt.

Read more here

5G Mast Returns

A renewed application for a 5G pole next to a new Kenilworth housing estate has been submitted, months after a previous scheme was refused.

Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Ltd has applied for planning permission for the 20-metre high monopole on a verge along Leamington Road.

The site is close to where Charles Church is building its new Kenilworth Gate estate, and where a major new 'employment area' will be built.

Read the full story here.

'Dangerous' Entrance

Town councillors have continued to criticise the "dangerous" pedestrian access around a new Kenilworth housing estate, a year after they first raised the issue.

Members at Kenilworth Town Council say they continue to press Warwickshire County Council and developer Persimmon Homes as residents at the Kenilworth Gate development on Leamington Road are still "marooned" without a safe route into town.

"We are continuing to push both Persimmon and the county council to put a pavement between the St John's gyratory to connect it to the entrance of the Kenilworth Gate development," Cllr Richard Dickson said at last week's town council meeting. 

Read more here.

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