A giant discount food store has been unveiled as the latest addition to a multi-million pound development to transform derelict land in Newport.

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 landowner Growing Enterprises has submitted a planning application to build a 1,270 sq m supermarket – and it is believed discount retailer Lidl will move in if permission is granted.

The plans, submitted to Telford & Wrekin Council this week, also include parking spaces for up to 85 vehicles.

The supermarket will be built subject to planning permission at the front of the development and will be clearly visible from the A41 road.

Plans are also in place to build another convenience store on the site with Lidl’s rivals Aldi tipped to move in there.

Members of Newport Town Council have previously opposed plans to develop and extend Mere Park, claiming it would take business away from the town centre.

But a report that has been 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 sometime in the new year.