Aldi will offer two hours of free parking at its planned supermarket off Winchelsea Road in Rye.
The crucial move comes in response to recent criticism from local rival Jempson’s consultant Peacock and Smith that Aldi’s customers would not have enough time to make “linked trips” to central Rye.
In an email to Rother District Council (RDC) dated October 13, Aldi’s lead consultant Avison Young agreed that a planning condition on the car park’s time limit would be suitable. The two hours is half an hour longer than Aldi’s original proposal of 90 minutes parking.
The planning decisions will be made at RDC’s Planning Committee which meets monthly – the next is on November 13. The Committee’s December meeting is seen as more likely for a discussion about the Winchelsea Road site, however a decision could run into 2026.
A report on retail and town centre planning policy issues issued by Nexus Planning concluded that Aldi’s presence would have “the potential to provide a significant adverse impact upon the health of the town centre” but stressed the issues were “finely balanced” and would be influenced by the weight RDC places on key factors. The latter will likely include the benefits of a second supermarket, the importance of competition, local residents’ support for a second store, and reduction of car trips by people shopping for groceries outside the Rye area.
In other words, RDC may decide the impact of Aldi to be adverse but not significantly adverse, Nexus said.
While the primary retail impact would affect Jempson’s, a key factor in the linked visits and town’s retail health is access to a free or low-priced central car park. In this context, it’s difficult to judge how many visitors to Jempson’s car park are using it to access other shops or services in town.
Aldi believes it has answered Nexus’ contention that the council needs “to be clear over the car parking arrangements at the proposed store, given that they will influence the propensity for linked trips”.
Jempson’s car park currently offers about 90 spaces, while Aldi is proposing 107 spaces at its planned 1,863 sq m supermarket.
While public backing for a second supermarket in Rye remains strong, RDC’s planning decision appears too close to call.
The new £5 million supermarket proposed for Winchelsea Road is part of a wider development on the site which also includes homes and retirement housing.
Image Credits: Harris Partnership .
Interesting to read, Aldi the cheapest supermarket in 2025, just what the shoppers in Rye are waiting for as food prices everywhere are going through the roof.
As a shopper, I wonder why an Aldi store in the proposed location would have an ‘adverse effect on the health of the town centre’?
If you’re out for the weekly supermarket shop that’s the purpose: in, select, pay, load up the car and home again. Boring!
No car? Carry as many shopping bags as you’re able and get them home a.s.a.p., maybe on the bus. [That might make Jempson’s a better bet!] You don’t want to have a wander round the town with heavy shopping bags.
No-one has mentioned the effect online grocery shopping has had on our buying habits and we all know how convenient that is! To what degree has that affected the health of the town centre?
If you live in Rye, you wouldn’t give up on a wander round the town for a coffee, a visit to an art gallery, a browse round it’s lovely boutiques and specialist retailers, lunch out, or see a film, etc., You’d still buy something portable, like a loaf of bread, a book, shampoo, a tube of paint or a jumper. But not if you’re laden up with grocery bags.
If it’s popping out for a pint of milk because you’ve run out, then Jempson’s might still be more convenient rather than a longer trek to Aldi’s.
As it’s mostly we women who do the shopping, what do YOU all think?
I have mentioned the online grocery shopping every time that somebody, frequently, says that Jempsons enjoys a local monopoly – they don’t enjoy any such monopoly. We are regular users of Jempsons, but our main food order is sourced online for convenience (and incidentally the prices are often cheaper in Jempsons).
There’s an interesting point about parking being long enough to visit the town centre. If you’re coming to Aldi Rye by car to shop, don’t want to walk an extra five minutes to the High Street what’s to stop you going to Jempsons, paying for parking ( as you would do now) while you visit the High Street shops. On that basis there is no case that shopping at Aldi would have any more impact on Town Centre businesses than Jempsons already does, particularly as Jempsons already competes with so many other non food businesses ( newspapers, stationery , hardware, small electrical appliances for example ) which Aldi will not
How come Ashford has now got a 2nd Aldi near the lorry park. I know there is so much more new housing going up around Ashford and the surrounding villages. But surely Rye residents and people from the surrounding villages deserve to be able to have a choice where they buy their food etc. Jempsons have the monopoly from travellers on the trains and buses coming to Rye, as they can get their essentials milk bread etc. We are really left in the Dark Ages. We was in Devon in September and on one shopping retail park there was Aldi, lidi, Tesco, Morrisons ,Greggs and a Range. So please can we have our Aldi it’s not much to ask!!!