The supermarket giant has been given permission to extend its store onto an area of green space at the end of The Dell, a cul-de-sac at the rear of the existing store. The application had been strongly opposed by people in Stourbridge and was refused in January by planners at the council. Councillors ruled the loss of public open space would be too great however the Planning Inspectorate overruled the rejection and gave Aldi the go-ahead for an extension to add 340 square metres of retail and storage space. In its report the Inspectorate concluded: “At present, the southern part of the open space has a fairly significant slope before it then flattens out towards the top. The proposed extension would be built upon the flatter area of open space.