A supermarket chain has been permitted to sell alcohol, including delivering it to customers who order online from a forthcoming branch in Kirkintilloch.

Aldi is developing a store at the old McGavigan’s site between Initiative Road and Woodilee Road, and the East Dunbartonshire Licensing Board has granted it an off sales license.

A solicitor for the retailer told the board that its plans were for a comparatively modest range of alcoholic items, with the display area being less than 40 square metres, about three per cent of the total floor space. Aldi does not sell such products as alcopops or caffeinated wines.

The plans for the new store have been broadly supported in consultations, including favourable responses from Lenzie and Waterside Community Councils.

Aldi decided to build the new store because the three closest branches were overperforming, with a third of the respondents involved in the consultation saying they were already travelling to Robroyston, Milngavie or Cumbernauld to shop.

The Kirkintilloch store will create 35 new jobs, with the solicitor also saying its construction would bring a “halo effect” benefiting surrounding businesses. Employees of the store would enjoy some of the best wages in the supermarket sector with good opportunities to advance within the company.

Online shopping services will be in the form of click and collect, with two parking spaces dedicated for customers arriving to pick up orders, and deliveries within the local area.

In either case, as well as instore, a Challenge 25 policy will be in force for transactions involving alcohol with ID requested when appropriate. Any refusals to cooperate will be logged with reports analysed at multiple levels up to company directors.

The solicitor also said that Aldi contributes to good causes locally, giving money to sports clubs and that the Cumbernauld store had also donated hundreds of meals to community organisations and schools.

Staff are given comprehensive training with regard to alcohol sales including quarterly refreshers and must achieve perfect scores in exams before they can work on the shop floor.  Checkout operators are also prompted to confirm ages whenever processing alcohol sales.

Further security measures include electronic tagging of alcoholic products, stock monitoring, surveillance cameras and the presence of multiple license holders at all times.

During the hearing, Police Scotland provided a list of crime figures for the previous year while licensing standards officer Claire Mather noted that the store would site just outside Kirkintilloch West, which is considered an area with an overprovision of off sales so an inspection would be carried out if the application was successful.

David Aitken of East Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership recommended that Kirkintilloch South be designated an overprovision area due to poor alcohol related illness figures, noting that there were also three other supermarkets within a 1.5 mile radius. It is also located adjacent to two overprovision areas in Kirkintilloch West and Hillhead.

He therefore recommended that Challenge 25 be stipulated as a condition of the licence and that the alcohol display area be located in an area designed to be less visible to vulnerable people.

Following a brief adjournment the licensing board unanimously granted the application.