South Hams District Council and the project team behind plans to regenerate the centre of Ivybridge and build a discount food store at Leonards Road carpark, will be holding an opening evening on March 23 for local people to come and take their first look at the planning application.

After many years of discussion and consultation, the local people in Ivybridge are invited to get their first look at plans that include a food store to be operated by Aldi, a new tiered car park and other improvements.

Once the plans are uploaded to the Council’s website, which should happen before the end of March, all residents will be able to go online to look in detail at the submission and to make their comments or representations.

However, to enable residents to get a closer look at the plans, the project team will be at the Bridge Café (formerly the youth centre) from 1pm to 8pm on Wednesday March 23.

Cllr Hilary Bastone, South Hams District Council’s Executive Member for Economy said “We know that there are a lot of opinions about these plan locally, both from those people who are excited by the development and those people who are against it.

“Therefore it is important for local people to know that the open evening on the 23 is not a formal consultation. We will be gathering opinions at the event and they will be considered as part of the application but the main opportunity for residents to have their say on the plans is when the application goes live on the Council’s website.

“We expect this to happen by the end of the month, once the plans have been verified by the planning department.

“The open evening is a great opportunity for local people to take a look at the plans in a large format and to ask questions of the project team.” The public open day to be held on the 23 March is a drop in event so there will not be a set presentation, please feel free to drop by any time between 1 and 8 pm. Present at the event will be representatives from the Council, from the project development partner Kier and the discount food store’s proposed operator Aldi, who will all be there to answer your questions about the application.