A planning application for a new Lidl supermarket which could create 40 jobs on the Anglia Retail Park has been formally submitted to Ipswich Council.

The 2,400 square metre store would be built on the site of the former B&Q garden centre – separate to the existing units on the retail park.

The application has been made by the council itself on behalf of its commercial property company Ipswich Borough Assets (IBA) which owns Anglia Retail Park.

It has been in the pipeline for many months but the application was held while the situation regarding Aldi's move from Meredith Road to Europa Way and the subsequent sale of the Whitton site to Farm Foods was completed.

IBA chairman Colin Kreidewolf said he expected the borough's planning and development committee to make a decision during the summer.

According to the planning documents, the store would create 40 full-time equivalent jobs and have a turnover approaching £14m a year.

It would be open from 8am to 10pm Mondays to Saturdays and 10am to 4pm on Sundays.

It would use up some of the parking space at the Anglia Retail Park – reducing the total number of spaces from 827 to 813.

However, Mr Kreidewolf said IBA may have to look at increasing the number of parking spaces in the future because of its growing popularity.

He said: "We have been working on this proposal for some time and now everything has been agreed and the application submitted.

"I would expect it to come to the committee in June or July and then if it does get planning permission I would expect it to take at least nine months for preparation and construction so the earliest it would be open would be the first half of next year.

"It would be a major boost for the retail park, but it is already doing very well and we are already looking at the possibility of increasing the number of parking spaces because we do hear that it is difficult to find space at some of the busiest times."

Although there are no CGIs of the proposed new store, it is clear from the architects' drawings that it would be similar in style to other Lidl supermarkets like that in London Road and Felixstowe.

Lidl did not respond to a request for information about the proposed store.