A BUDGET supermarket is on its way to a retail park in Abingdon - but it will not be the one originally planned.

Lidl rather than Aldi is now set to occupy a unit at the revamped Fairacres Retail Park, off Marcham Road.

A deal has now been signed with the German supermarket giant, and a listing on the website for Curson Sowerby Partners, which manages the site on behalf of owners Mays Properties, confirms contracts have been exchanged for a unit totalling nearly 18,500 sq ft.

The change to Lidl marks the third brand to be linked with the major redevelopment of the eastern half of the retail park.

It is understood all three supermarket chains wanted the prime spot, but it was Lidl that secured the deal.

Take a video tour of new Wallingford Lidl

Oxford Mail:

Planning permission was granted in 2016 to knock down four units on the site to create a new terrace of seven retail units.

This was later revised down to five, with one of these planned to house a Marks and Spencer Foodhall.

In December 2017, however, family-run property firm Mays sought to vary outline planning permission.

Instead, the company revealed a tie-in with supermarket chain Aldi and was subsequently granted permission for an increased unit to accommodate the foodstore in March last year.

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Units currently housing Homebase, Topps Tiles, AHF and Vineys are due to be replaced with a 49,060 sq ft terrace of five units.

This month further applications were put in to Vale of White Horse District Council to discharge conditions of the original approval so work can get underway, as well as make changes to the front of the four non-food units, which are all still listed as 'to let' on the CSP page.

Oxford Mail:

In these applications the largest unit is only referred to as being for 'the supermarket'.

See before Aldi and Lidl arrived on the scene with pictures of Oxford's supermarkets through the decades

Gareth Roberts from G R Planning Consultants, acting on behalf of Mays, warned in documents submitted with the applications that any delay in approving the 'minor changes' could have 'serious implications for the implementation' of the scheme, with work planned to start on the site later this year.

Work is scheduled to commence at the end of September and construction is due to be completed by the first quarter of 2021, and possibly as early as the last quarter 2020.

The existing retail park includes Carpetright, Dreams, Argos, B&M, Subway and Pets at Home. B&Q, Tesco, Furniture Village, Lee Longlands and the Miele Experience Centre are all within the immediate vicinity of the retail park.

The current revamp will be the second phase of an overhaul of the site, which started more than a decade ago with redevelopment of the western half of the retail park.