The final decision on a planning application to build an Aldi supermarket in Biddulph will now take place at a district council meeting in December.

This is according to the application's page on Staffordshire Moorlands District Council's planning portal.

The page states that the decision will take place at an upcoming district council Planning Committee meeting on Thursday, 3rd December.

Biddulph Nub News reported previously how a decision on the application has been the subject of several delays.

The application was initially scheduled to be considered at a planning meeting on 15th October, but a district council spokesperson told Biddulph Nub News it had been rescheduled for a week later, on 22nd October.

However, the application was then absent from the agenda of the 22nd October meeting, with no discussion of the supermarket taking place at this meeting.

Biddulph Nub News contacted both the district council and Aldi to ask why the application was not on the agenda for this meeting, but neither replied to a request for comment.

The application's status has been the subject of discussion at several meetings of Biddulph Town Council, at which councillors have stressed that they are not behind any potential delays in the decision-making process and had recommended the application for approval.

At a meeting of the town council's Planning Committee on 20th October, Cllr Nigel Yates said he contacted the district council to share his concerns over the delays, and was told that the council was still trying to work through a number of issues with Aldi, meaning the application was not ready for determination yet.

He added that the district council's reply also stated the application could possibly be ready for decision at the district council's Planning Committee meeting on 12th November.

However, the application is not present on the agenda for this committee either, with the following committee meeting on 3rd December now appearing to be the chosen decision date.

The agenda for this committee is unlikely to be published until a week before the meeting, although when it is published it can be found by clicking here.

German supermarket giant Aldi submitted an application to Staffordshire Moorlands District Council in June to build a new store on the site of the former Meadows Special School off Tunstall Road.

The school was demolished in a fire in 2004, and was later relocated to Leek.