Developers bid to build giant supermarket

Permission has already been granted for a £5 million, 50-bed Premier Inn hotel, a Beefeater restaurant and other craft shops and retail outlets on Mere Park off the A41 Stafford Road.

Now landowners Growing Enterprises has submitted a planning application to build a 1,533 sq m supermarket - and it is believed discount retailer Aldi will move in if permission is granted.

The plans, submitted to Telford & Wrekin Council this week, also include parking spaces for 90 vehicles and the building of a nursery for up to 130 youngsters.

A report submitted by Growing Enterprises in support of the application says: "The need in Newport is not for further small shops that will compete for retail operators with those existing shop units in the town.

"But for a retail outlet which will provide greater variety in the accommodation available in the town and which will attract different sorts of retailers to operate.

"This will increase the attractiveness of the town as a retail centre, and help retain some of the spending power that is available in the Newport catchment but which is currently being diverted elsewhere as the quality of the offer in the retail centre is inadequate."

It adds: "The proposed development is clearly at an appropriate level for the town. The application site, at present, is vacant and overgrown. It is featureless."

The new plans are expected to go before Telford & Wrekin Council's plans board in the New Year.