Asda Express at Haddington Retail Park applies to be able to sell alcohol at petrol station

The company behind the Asda Express store in the petrol station at Haddington Retail Park, aims to argue it is seen as a ‘principal source’ for groceries or fuel by a significant number of people in the area.

However a customer survey carried out in November last year reported that while 12.9 per cent agreed they would be disadvantaged or inconvenienced if they could not buy fuel from the service station, the proportion who said they would miss out on groceries was zero per cent.

In their application for a licence to sell alcohol from East Lothian Licensing Board, the firm which carried out the survey on behalf of Asda said: “The results show that a statistically significant proportion of persons (12.9 per cent) see and treat this service station as the principal source from which they, in ordinary course, purchase groceries and fuel and would properly consider themselves materially disadvantaged or inconvenienced were these retail facilities to no longer be provided from said premises.”

Asda Express is based in Haddington Retail Park, Haddington | Google Maps

Petrol stations are generally considered ‘excluded premises’; which cannot sell alcohol unless it is proven customers would be disadvantaged by losing access to groceries or fuel at it.

Haddington Retail Park, which opened at the Gateside entrance to the town four years ago, has a Food Warehouse, Home Bargains and Aldi supermarket alongside the petrol station and a Costa drive thru.

More than 800 customers were questioned during the survey with around 171 described as the ‘population of interest’ who lived locally and used the garage.

The survey also asked if they would buy alcohol if it was available at the petrol station, with 71.8 per cent saying they were likely to. Four out of five of them added that the purchase would be in addition to what they would normally buy at other shops rather than replacing a store purchase.

The application for a licence to sell alcohol from the garage will be heard by the licensing board on Thursday.