A SUPERMARKET giant will relaunch a public consultation into plans for a new store in Southampton – after admitting residents were not given enough notice to attend the last meeting.

Lidl says letters informing residents of plans for a new store on Banister Road, off Bassett Avenue, were delayed by snow.

It meant people living near the site, currently a Land Rover Jaguar showroom, were only told about the proposals days before Lidl exhibited them at a public meeting.

This sparked Freemantle councillor Jeremy Moulton, who himself was unable to attend due to the short notice, to call for a new consultation.

Now Lidl say it will host another meeting on St Marks Church Centre, on Archers Road, on March 20.

Lidl’s head of property, James Mitchell, said: “Feedback from the local community is incredibly important to us and we would like to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to come along, view the plans, and speak to our dedicated team directly.

“As such, we have organised a second event to give anyone unable to attend before, the opportunity to come along.”

In a letter to residents, Mr Mitchell said the company had intended the letter to reach residents on March 1.

He added: “Due to snow the letter was delivered much later than we had intended and we are aware this did not give some residents enough notice to attend our open day.

“This is regrettable.”

Councillor Moulton praised Lidl for holding another meeting.

He said: “I’m very pleased because I think it’s the right thing to do.

“I’ve had people contact me who only had a day’s notice and they weren’t able to go.

“It is good that Lidl are having pre-application consultations with residents and hopefully they will be able to take some views on board.

Freemantle councillor, Dave Shields, was also “pleased” to see a second meeting.

The multimillion-pound plans involve demolishing the current Land Rover Jaguar showroom and replacing it with a new 2,125sqm store, including an in-store bakery.

The site will also have up to 130 parking spaces, while part of the showroom, nearest to the Avenue, will be kept and “repurposed” as a new commercial building.