King's Road Park Development Sainsbury's Local Gets Licence
Application accepted despite concerns of local residents
The new store will be on Sands End Lane
December 9, 2025
A new Sainsbury’s Local set to be part of a in a 1,800-unit Fulham housing development has been granted a licence to sell alcohol until 11pm seven days a week.
The store, which will open in King’s Road Park, Fulham, is yet to be completed and requires planning permission to determine its final opening hours. In an at-times heated Licensing Sub-Committee meeting in late November Hammersmith and Fulham councillors agreed to grant the request. The decision has only just been made public.
A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s said the new store “will create jobs and provide a brand new place for people to shop with a carefully curated range of tasty, high quality food”.
In its application to the council Sainsbury’s had requested the sale of alcohol between 7am and 11pm Monday to Sunday and 24/7 opening hours. It was explained during the meeting, however, that this is to act as an umbrella for the store with the final operating hours to be decided through planning.
Nine conditions were proposed by Sainsbury’s including that a member of staff trained in the use of CCTV must be available on the premises at all times and that adequate security be maintained.
A further condition was also agreed with the police, stipulating that the licence holder will assess whether additional measures are required when Chelsea FC’s men’s team have home games at Stamford Bridge.
The application received three objections during consultation, two from residents and one from a representative of the Barclay Road Residents Association.
One representation reads: “I would like the committee to know that I am concerned about the proposed early 7am alcohol sales and very late stop of sales at 23:00. I do not understand why such an early start for the sale of alcohol is necessary. I also am worried about how this could negatively affect the vulnerable veterans living directly across from the planned Sainsbury’s in Valour House (Oswold [sic] Stoll Foundation).”
Another representation raises concerns such as the potential impacts of delivery drivers and the proximity of other shops, such as a Tesco.
Charlotte Dexter, of the Barclay Road Residents Association, spoke on behalf of all three of the representations against the proposal. She reiterated concerns about the residential nature of the area and the nearby Oswald Stoll veterans in Valour House.
“Without going into detail about more than what I’ve said we feel…that allowing alcohol to be sold very early in the morning and very late at night would not help neighbours in this residential community…in any way or form,” she said.
Robert Botkai, a Senior Partner at law firm Winckworth Sherwood representing Sainsbury’s, clarified the supermarket is not seeking 24-hour trading but rather a licence covering 7am to 11pm.
“We are not applying for a 24-hour licence here, and we are not going to be open 24 hours,” he told members.
He added that conditions have already been agreed regarding football games, and that imposing particular restrictions on deliveries would prove “difficult”.
At this stage it is not even certain that the store would have deliveries, he said, but that to restrict alcohol deliveries specifically “would cause confusion and difficulty because the orders might need to be split”.
On the concerns regarding the potential impacts on the veterans, he said there has been no evidence of issues such as street drinking or public nuisance in the area, and that no objections were made by the police or Valour House.
Cllr Jacolyn Daly asked a series of questions on how the applicant intends to manage potential risks posed to residents and others in the locality. She also asked about delivery drivers and how issues such as congregation and noise will be mitigated.
Joanne Surguy, Licensing Manager at Sainsbury’s, said at the moment there is no provision for third-party delivery drivers operating outside the store. If in the future this changes, Ms Surguy said there will be certain rules imposed, such as no idling and no radios late at night.
Sub-Committee Chair Cllr Mercy Umeh asked the applicant about the management of crowds during matchdays, before members moved to deliberation in private.
While approval was granted, councillors opted to add some conditions, including that Sainsbury’s completes a risk assessment to establish if the store is located in close proximity to schools and hostels, that a responsible member of staff organise meetings with residents, including a representative of Valour House, and that the phone number of the store’s manager be available for the public to contact.
This then led to a further 20 minutes of back and forth between applicant and the licensing authority, with Mr Botkai describing the conditions as “terribly unclear”.
The decision notice, which was not published until a week or so after the meeting, includes just two additional conditions imposed by the committee plus an amendment to one of the applicant’s own conditions, as well as that agreed with the police.
The two added by the committee are that a responsible member of staff is to organise a meeting to discuss the new store’s operations with the Barclay Road Residents Association and a representative of Valour House within six months of it opening, and that a phone number of the premises should be displayed so management are able to be contacted
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We’re planning to open a new Sainsbury’s Local at Sands End Lane and we’re pleased that this application has now been granted, bringing us one step closer to delivering the store. It will create jobs and provide a brand new place for people to shop with a carefully curated range of tasty, high quality food. We’ll keep the local community updated as our plans progress.”
The King’s Road Park scheme was approved by Hammersmith and Fulham Council in 2019. The part-outline, part-detailed application, submitted by St William, requested permission to redevelop the former Fulham Gasworks site into an area delivering homes, public spaces and a range of amenities.
Since then St William, which is part of Berkeley Group, has filed more detailed plans for four of the scheme’s six phases, all of which have been approved.
Some elements of the masterplan are already complete, including Valour House, which recently became the new home for veterans relocating from Sir Oswald Stoll Mansions in Fulham.
Applications for the last two phases are yet to be submitted and are still in the pre-planning stage of design. The LDRS understands the entire project could be finished by 2032, subject to planning permission and approval from the Building Safety Regulator.
Ben Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter