I emailed Lidl yesterday to ask about the store opening and the news is............there is no news. See below for their reply.

"Dear Lidl Customer

Re: New Store

We thank you for your recent email regarding our plans to open a new Store.

We can confirm that at this current stage, regrettably we do not have any proposed dates for the opening of this Store. Nonetheless, when this information becomes available, advertisements will be issued into the local area to confirm.

In the meantime, may we thank you for taking the time to contact our Department and should you have any additional enquiries, then please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Very strange as I would have expected them to be rushing to get the place trading as soon as possible. I suppose since it was built by LJR Properties, it won't be costing Lidl any money so they are in no hurry.

I was speaking to someone yesterday who has actually got a job at the new Lidl and they are not due to start working there until August. They were told the reason there has been a delay is because of the roof being too high! HELLO, THIS IS WHAT THE RESIDENTS OF IMRIE PLACE INUNDATED THE COUNCIL ABOUT THE DAY THE STEEL STRUCTURE WENT UP!.

I see the shoplifters, I mean shopfitters have moved in to the building now so we might see some progress one day. The Lidl car park was closed off again today with part of the Somerfield one open again.
I also see they are planning to make the section of road there a 20mph zone which could result in lots of speeding fines if they enforce it.

yes, I noticed yesterday that they were finally starting to do something although there was apparently I bit of complaining from Lidl as people were parking in their car park!!! yesterday morning when I went to work the fence was across the Lidl car park stopping anyone getting in and the Somerfield car park was completely closed as they were digging it up. Lidl are not getting off to the best of starts I must say, it seems to be they want everything their own way!

It seems to be taking a very long time to get Lidl's new store fitted out and open. I wonder why they have put up the barriers round the shop and now have boarded up the windows on the inside - is there some big secret they don't want us (or Tesco / Somerfield) to see in there?

yeah I know, the residents have been having a right good laugh at them. I think they forget we can see into the car park. They have even put one of these barriers at the back of the property beside the snooker hall in Imrie Place. I think they are having some problems fitting the place out and have only just got electric in as we have been listening to their generator for the past couple of weeks. It was suppose to be open this month but I can't see it being ready before September. They are working late and at the weekends and dont seem to be getting anywhere fast. its a joke!

unfortunately folks, it looks like you are all going to have to wait a little longer for Lidl to hit Penicuik. I noticed the other day that there was a demolition lorry in the car park which I thought was strange and found out today that they are apparently have to dig up the concrete shop floor! I did notice on Midlothian Councils website that Lidl had applied for a Building Warrant in July to do with alterations to the drainage, this must also explain why they have got all the boarding up around the door etc - I think they big secret has been rumbled! at the rate they are going it will have taken over a year to build one store. This is the first time that Lidl had apparently used a firm outwith to build a store, so I don't think they'll be in a hurry to do that again with all the problems they have had. It was all very dodgy anyway, there was only ever 3/4 Irish guys on site at the start and no building company name up advertising the firm not in the least bit suprised the roof was leaking, it was built too high, they hit power cables and they are having problems with drainage.

Thanks for the update Gonzo. The whole thing seems to be turning in to a real fiasco so it is no wonder they are trying to hide it from people. I can see that by the time it is finished, LJR will be paying Lidl for the store!

An article in the Advertiser this week tells how 200 people applied for the 12 job vacancies at Lidl. It seems it will be the end of September (didn't say which year) when the store opens despite the fact that work is going well in fitting it out

As expected, no mention of any problems even though work began in late October 2008.

thats interesting as I know someone who works at the job centre and every person that they sent along to be interviewed, Lidl rejected and asked for more people to be sent. No wonder there was 200 applicants.

My son applied for a part-time job with them and was promptly rejected without an interview.

The Advertiser article is now on the website so you can read it at:

http://www.midlothianadvertiser.co.uk/news/200-in-bid-for-jobs.5563812.jp

Just remember THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE - but not in this article!

Shock news - Lidl is actually going to open!!!!

Thursday 24th September is the big day according to the advert in the Advertiser today!

The barriers are down and the lights are on so it appears that Lidl will actually be opening later this month. I did doubt that they would ever finish it but there seems to be loads of work going on plus Tesco and Somerfield have suddenly started to display lots of special offers - I wonder why?