AN AREA of Thetford is poised to receive millions of pounds of investment after plans for a supermarket were given the green light.

After lengthy discussions, Breckland Council’s planning committee granted outline permission this week to The Crown Estate and Pigeon to build a Morrisons food store on part of the site of the Thetford Enterprise Park (TEP), off Mundford Road.

As part of the scheme, the developers plan to deliver £5million worth of infrastructure to help kickstart the long-stalled site, which they say will unlock the potential to provide up to 1,500 new jobs for the town and to host a regional engineering hub.

Proposals for a supermarket at the TEP site were favoured over plans lodged by Location 3 Properties for an Asda at the former Tulip International factory site, off London Road.

Breckland Council planning officers had recommended the Asda plans for approval, but the planning committee voted in favour of the Morrisons, saying a supermarket at the TEP site would meet the needs of the planned 5,000 new homes in the north part of the town and would not have a detrimental impact on employment opportunities in Thetford.

During Monday’s planning meeting, Sylvia Armes, councillor for Thetford Saxon, said: “The TEP site we have is a golden key to unlock a piece of land that’s stood dormant for 20 years.

“Five thousand houses are going to go up on the north of the town, an increase of 15,000 people.

“They would all have to travel to the other side of town. We also have many villages to the north of the town, Mundford, Northwold, Croxton, and they will probably want to come to the town to do their shopping.

“The TEP site is going to bring in people from those villages that will use that supermarket and they will appreciate not having to travel right around the bypass or going through the town.”

The two separate planning applications were initially put before Breckland’s planning committee in October last year and were deferred until yesterday’s meeting.