A NEW discount supermarket store in Alexandria has been given the green light by two significant organisations.

In November last year Lidl submitted an application for planning permission to build a new store in the heart of Alexandria - a move it has targeted for almost a decade.

Plans detail a building with a sales area of 1,251 square metres, as well as an in-store bakery, customer toilets with baby changing facilities, and parking for both cars and bikes.

If approved, the multi-million-pound investment will create around 40 jobs for the local economy.

And late last month both Scottish Water and Historic Environment Scotland said that they had no objections to the proposals.

However, a transport assessment indicates that Lidl expects the new store to attract 103 new private vehicle trips to the area at peak times; with 52 of these passers-by, and 51 new trips solely generated to visit the supermarket.

Lidl has been a key part of £12m plans to transform the Vale’s run down town centre.

Previously the Reporter told how Janice Ross of the Vale of Leven Trust said the group opposes the plans because of fears they could result in Alexandria “becoming a housing estate, not a town centre”.

In 2021, councillors agreed to ask Lidl to reconsider its original plans for the new store by creating a clear boundary between existing shops and the proposed new homes and having the store frontage facing on to Mitchell Way itself.

The proposals were moved forward in August as West Dunbartonshire Council agreed to hand over the dilapidated Mitchell Way site to the German budget supermarket.

Lidl GB’s regional head of property, Gordon Rafferty, said: “If planning permission is granted, the new store would mark a multi-million pound investment in the area, and the creation of new jobs when the store opens.”