A proposed new Lidl Supermarket for the Anglia Retail Park on the north west edge of Ipswich could move a step closer later this month when it goes before borough planners.

Council-owned Ipswich Borough Assets has applied for planning permission for the store which would be built on the site of the former B&Q garden centre which has been empty since that store closed.

While the rest of the park has been redeveloped and has seen new names arrive in the town, the former garden centre was left empty - but earlier this year a planning application for its redevelopment was submitted.

If the application is approved the new supermarket will be built by Ipswich Borough Assets in consultation with Lidl which will then move into it as tenants.

The process of taking the application to committee has taken longer than hoped because of its complexity and the need to prove that there was nowhere better to build a new supermarket.

Borough councillor Colin Kreidewolf is chair of Ipswich Borough Assets and was hopeful that the proposal would be approved.

He said: "We have been waiting for a final report but that is now completed and it should be ready for the next meeting (due on July 27)."

The planning meeting will not be the end of the saga. Mr Kreidewolf said if permission is granted IBA would then have to go out to tender to find a company to build the new store.

The store is not expected to be ready to open until well into next year.

That will be the second new Lidl store to open in Ipswich within a few months. The company confirmed this week that it hoped to open its new Futura Park supermarket on the other side of Ipswich during the winter.

That will replace the existing Ravenswood store, but the Anglia Retail Park will be a completely new store serving shoppers who do not have easy access to a Lidl store at present.