Planning chiefs are being asked to rule on whether parcel lockers can stay outside an Emsworth supermarket after they were installed without permission.

According to its sustainability document, InPost is a parcel locker delivery service working with councils and businesses, and has installed over 5,000 lockers in the UK from corner shops and petrol stations to railway stations and shopping centres.

The firm has applied to Havant Borough Council for retrospective planning permission for a 5.5-metre-long locker which is already in use outside the Co-operative supermarket at 2 High Street, Emsworth.

The InPost lockers outside the Co-Op in Emsworth have been installed without planning permission | Northmill Associates/LDRS

placeholder image — The InPost lockers outside the Co-Op in Emsworth have been installed without planning permission | Northmill Associates/LDRS

The shop, at the High Street junction of King’s Terrace and West Street, is also home to the Post Office along with the lockers, which have built-in CCTV for security.

InPost said it provides an affordable and eco-friendly service so people can collect, send and return parcels at a time which suits them, eliminating the need for door-to-door journeys and repeat deliveries.

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It added that it served over 2 million individual customers in the UK in 2022, with 46 per cent of these customers using the service more than once and claimed it helps local economies by driving customers to the high street to shop.

At present, InPost said 22 per cent of the total population of the UK live within a seven-minute walk of one of its lockers.

The council will make a decision on application APP/25/00147 by May 8.