WESTBURY’S former Co-operative supermarket could lie deserted for most of next year; rumours that it will be knocked down are growing as Lidl has left the town with an empty supermarket and no explanation.
The Post Office kiosk is the only sign of life in the former supermarket on Bitham Park and new owner Lidl remains secretive over the store’s future.
The Co-op left the building in November but the Post Office says its kiosk will remain until October 2017.
A former Co-op employee has told White Horse News that Lidl told staff the building would be knocked down next year when the post office has left, before the company builds its own store.
The employee said they and other staff had been made redundant and are due 12 weeks’ severance pay.
White Horse News has had no answers to enquiries made to Lidl on 24th November.
Post Office staff and Westbury Town Council both said they did not know what Lidl’s plans were.
Another local resident, Rodney Small, said he had contacted Lidl because he is concerned about the future of the post office.
“Nobody I spoke to had any idea what is going on,” he said. “One person told me it’s the company’s policy to pull down old buildings and put up their own eco-friendly stores.
“It would be wasteful to let the shop stand there empty all year, but my real concern is losing the post office – we can’t afford to get rid of that.”
30 people were employed at the Co-op until last month. The company originally said the staff would transfer to Lidl, but now says, “Every effort will be made to redeploy colleagues within the Co-op, or to help them find alternative employment.”
Lidl has also ordered Wiltshire Council to remove a number of public recycling bins that were kept outside the store, in a move called ‘extremely disappointing’ by a local councillor.
