A town's first Aldi supermarket is due to open before the end of the year - creating 50 new jobs.

The budget retailer has confirmed the new Faversham store off the A251 will be up-and-running “in the next few months”.

Construction at the site, which forms part of the huge Perry Court Farm development, has been progressing throughout the difficulties of Covid-19 and is on course to be finished soon.

It will boast a 123-space car park, while a new three-storey Premier Inn hotel will open nearby along with a 66-bed care home and a proposed parade of shops.

The application for three small shops, for which tenants have not been revealed, have raised questions from Aldi, which wants clarification that its parking spaces will not be taken up and confirmation on how deliveries will be completed.

Meanwhile, the recently-installed roundabout on the A251, which is to be the main junction leading to the new development, is already set to be modified due to HGVs regularly running over the kerbs.

A request from Lib Dem councillors Ben Martin and Trevor Martin to reconfigure the junction has been given the nod.

Work to widen the south-bound approach, replace damaged kerbing, and install double-height kerbs will begin next week and last about a fortnight.

With plans for the roundabout and Aldi supermarket in full swing, the housing element of the scheme is also progressing.

Barratt David Wilson Homes, which is building 310 homes on the fields between the A251 and Brogdale Road, welcomed members of Faversham Town Council last week to see how construction is going.

The developer’s plan to expand the development by about 20% is still pending consideration with Swale Borough Council.

The firm wants to add 58 homes to the sprawling Perry Court Farm scheme on a five-acre parcel of former farmland behind The Abbey School and next to a Grade-II listed oasthouse.

If approved, the new houses will be a mix of two, three and four-bed properties.

The town council and the Campaign to Protect Rural England group are among those to lodge objections against the plans, citing how the scheme would constitute an “overdevelopment” of the area.

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