The signs are right for new Newport Aldi store
The signs are up and soon Shropshire's newest Aldi store will be bustling with shoppers.
Work is forging ahead on Newport's new budget supermarket.
The 1,745 sq metre store is based at the former Focus site in Audley Avenue, which has been empty for about two years.
Aldi anticipate the store will open in August.
The supermarket chain, which has contributed towards a growing squeeze on the UK's big four supermarkets, held a recruitment drive in November and says it will hire up to 50 staff from the Newport area.
It is the first of a number of supermarkets proposed in and around the town during recent years to take shape.
Late last year St Modwen, Telford & Wrekin Council and Sainsbury's were forced to pull the plug on a three-year bid to build a Sainsbury's supermarket in Station Road. It is now proposed that site will be used for 120 houses.
Earlier this year an application for a Lidl at the Mere Park Garden Centre site on the outskirts of the town was rejected by Telford & Wrekin Council's planning committee.
Applicants Growing Enterprises Ltd, headed by Mere Park Garden Centre boss David Brierley, had hoped to build the Lidl on the Mere Park site.
Council planners had recommended refusal because of concerns about building on green fields and access via public transport.
An appeal on the refusal of the first application is now set to go ahead with the Planning Inspectorate.
