ON your marks, get set, go . . . the race to build Felixstowe’s new superstore is today under way.

Albourne Property plc has formally submitted plans for a 30,000 sq ft supermarket on a brownfield site, old railway sidings close to the town centre, and the planning clock is now ticking with public consultation under way.

No operator has been chosen for the store yet, but the developers say it will bring 80 full-time and 80 part-time jobs, plus hundreds of construction jobs.

In two to three weeks’ time, the Walton Green Partnership will submit its plans for a 30,000 sq ft store on greenfield land, a 30-acre field in Walton High Street. It would also bring hundreds of new jobs.

In theory, both projects could get the go-ahead, but it is more likely it will be just one of them – campaigners are against both, saying they will each provide far more supermarket floorspace than Suffolk Coastal’s plans say the resort needs in the next 15 years.

Albourne Property’s site sits next to the railway station and behind homes in High Road West. It stretches to the Garrison Lane bridge – delivery lorries would enter the site at the traffic lights, while Station Approach would be widened to cope with extra car traffic. Improvements would be made to passenger facilities at the station.

It would be built on two storeys with part of the 300-space car park at ground floor level.

A spokesman for Albourne Property said: “The provision of an additional supermarket in Felixstowe will reduce the leakage of trade from the area.

“Retail studies undertaken indicate that a significant proportion of local residents currently visit other towns for their food shopping. A significant proportion of future customers will therefore benefit from shorter journeys for their food shopping resulting in substantive journey savings for the catchment area.”