AN EMPTY building on the Rheidol retail park is set to be bulldozed to create extra parking spaces, after owners found the current car park “struggle to adequately meet the needs of visitors” during peak times.

Lidl, which bought the freehold of the Aberystwyth retail park in 2019, expanded its store into what was then the Iceland store last year.

Mountain Warehouse, which had occupied the retail park unit that sits within the car park, moved to the former Store 21 store on the entrance to the park last year.

After reconfiguring the retail park and expanded its own store since the freehold purchase, Lidl now wants to provide extra car parking space by demolishing the now empty 296sqm unit.

The plan would allow “an improvement in the car parking provision”, documents said, “and ensure the continued viability of the retained, occupied units within the park.”

“Lidl has identified that existing parking provision can, at peak times of usage, struggle to adequately meet the needs of visitors to the park, which may be detrimental to both shoppers at the park, and wider centre,” documents said.

The plan, which is set to see 23 extra car parking spaces, will be decided by council planners later this year.