Grantham's Asda is planning to erect extra click-and-collect and home delivery facilities to help customers as coronavirus restrictions are toughened.

The supermarket at 1 Union Street applied for planning permission earlier this month, well before Lincolnshire was placed under Tier 4 restrictions yesterday.

It seeks to erect a three-bay click and collect canopy, a van bay canopy and a Home Shopping storage modular building in part of its car park.

The application said: "The proposal is to improve the home shopping facility by constructing a new, more convenient storage facility. This will consist of a new home shopping modular building, within it there will be a new frozen and chilled store.

"This will be located in the main customer car park, to the east of the store. A new 4no. van bay canopy is to be added to create a covered walkway for employees. A new 3no. bay grocery collection canopy will be installed to provide the store with the facilities to offer click and collect services."

It also explained: "The site is trading as an Asda store with customer parking located to the north. The home shopping service area is currently combined with the shop floor storage and distribution.

"The Asda Home Shopping service provides the option for their customers to shop online. The home shopping storage pods are used as a storage area so groceries, which have been picked from the retail shop floor, can be collected and stored ready for dispatch.

"The goods will then be loaded onto small delivery vehicles, which will be parked under a canopy and delivered to customers within the local area during specific time slots throughout the day.

"The proposed works provide additional home shopping capacity through increased storage space with a new building. The new van bays will accommodate a total 4no. vans, currently the store does not have this facility."

Asda says home delivery and click-and-collect has been a growing part of its business since the start of the coronavirus crisis.

The planning application also said: "Since the pandemic began earlier this year, we expanded our capacity for home deliveries from serving 450k customers a week to 700k customers, within just a matter of weeks.

"This included providing 'priority delivery passes' to nearly 200k vulnerable and elderly customers, who we continue to serve.

"Additional capacity is being developed ahead of Christmas this year, which will allow us to serve 750k customers in December nationwide. We are working towards a target of serving 1 million customers a week in the future, to ensure our customers can stay home and be safe."

It added: "Our Click & Collect business has also quadrupled in the past 6 months and the requirement for the expansion of our drive-thru operations is clear.

"Customers can order online and drive through our collection points without entering a store, if they wish to do so (i.e. for ease, convenience and to remain safe in their vehicle)."

South Kesteven District Council has still to determine the application.