Sunderland planners' key ruling on new IKEA pick-up lockers for Newcastle Road Tesco Extra

Sunderland City Council’s planning department has approved an application for part of the Tesco Extra supermarket car park off Newcastle Road.

Plans submitted earlier this year (2025) sought permission for self-serve ‘pick-up lockers’ in the rear of the supermarket’s car park, close to the Stadium of Light Metro Station.

The proposed development aimed to allow Sunderland shoppers to pick up online IKEA orders from the site, with plans submitted for both the locker units and associated illuminated signs.

According to IKEA’s website, the pick-up lockers are linked to a partnership between retail giants IKEA and Tesco and were first trialled at the Peterborough Werrington Superstore, followed by other sites.

The automated pick-up lockers allow customers to be able to pick up a “wide range of IKEA products, from home accessories and homewares to furniture”, with larger orders able to be split across multiple lockers.

During a council public consultation exercise on the plans, there were no representations submitted to local authority planners.

After considering the planning application, and a separate bid for advertising consent for illuminated signs, Sunderland City Council’s planning department approved the plans on September 2, 2025.

Council planning documents described the development as a “bank of 30 lockers” to allow for the collection of shopping online via ‘click and collect’.

Council planners, in a decision report, said the appearance of the lockers was “considered to be acceptable in the context of the wider retail setting and is not considered to have any detrimental impact upon visual amenity”.

It was noted that there would be a “designated parking bay provided for a delivery van to pick up and drop off or [for] customers to park” and that bollards at the site “would protect the lockers from other vehicles”.

Although the development would result in a loss of 10 car parking spaces, there was no objection from the council’s highways department linked to the “positioning of the lockers.”

A separate council decision report linked to advertising consent for illuminated signs, noted the site would be “adequately screened by existing means of enclosure and a vast amount of well established vegetation”.

Council planners noted the site would be “viewed within the context of existing commercial signage” and would “not cause any significant harm to the visual amenity of the area”.

The council decision report added no concerns had been raised over the“scale, massing, and siting of the installation from a highway safety perspective.”

An announcement on IKEA’s website in August, 2024, said the pick-up lockers “build on the existing partnership between IKEA and Tesco, which has seen over 100 mobile pick-up points launch at Tesco stores across the UK”.

It was noted that a “further 100 pick-up points” were planned to launch, with a number due to open in 2024.

An IKEA statement said existing “mobile pick-up points allow products to be collected during two daily time windows” but that with new pick-up lockers, “items can be picked up at any time, providing more flexibility and improved accessibility for customers.”

Simon Williams, Tesco’s assets and estates director, speaking in August, 2024, said “IKEA-manned click and collect points are already widely used with almost 100 in operation right across the UK”.

“We hope that these convenient and forward-thinking new automated lockers are just as well received”, he added.

Under planning conditions, the development at the Sunderland Tesco Extra supermarket car park must be brought forward within three years.

For more information on the plan or council decision, visit Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website and search reference 25/01490/FUL and 25/01491/ADV