Plans for a town’s first Aldi store are set to be approved for a second time - despite a legal threat from rival discounter Lidl.

The German chains are embroiled in a battle over development of Folkestone’s former Silver Spring Mineral Water Company site.

Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) approved Aldi’s plans to open on the Park Farm Industrial Estate in June, but Lidl is now threatening to launch a formal judicial review of the authority’s decision.

The move has led the council to review its position on the scheme, with councillors set to discuss the plans again at a planning committee meeting on Tuesday.

But the project, which also includes two new drive-thru restaurants, has been recommended for approval again.

Lidl claims the council “failed to assess the application with necessary care” as a planning officer’s report prepared ahead of the committee meeting in the summer did not mention the chain’s concerns over the impact on its two stores in the district.

The company says the authority has “exposed itself to a judicial review claim” by failing to complete a “rigorous impact assessment” of the new supermarket.

FHDC planning officers say it is now “appropriate to report the application back to the planning committee to include further assessment and clarification on a number of the matters raised”.

But the authority is standing firm against Lidl, which runs stores in Shellons Street, Folkestone and Hawkinge, and is recommending the plans press ahead.

Since the meeting in June, FHDC says a bus service contribution of £35,000 has been agreed with applicant Channex Project Ltd as well as amended plans to improve landscaping on the site.

In a statement, an Aldi spokesman maintains the chain “remains committed to bringing a new store to Folkestone”.

It currently runs a store in Dymchurch Road, Hythe, but the Silver Spring scheme, if built, will be its first in Folkestone.

The store is set to be 20,000 sq ft in size, with the unnamed drive-thrus ranging from 1,800 sq ft to 2,500 sq ft.

Park Farm Industrial Estate is already home to McDonald’s, Sainsbury’s, Homebase, Pets at Home and Home Bargains.

Silver Spring, which had operated in Folkestone since 1888, fell into administration in 2013 and the building was demolished a year later.

The company had been based on the Park Farm estate since 1970.

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Meanwhile, the feud between the two chains is not the first dispute they are involved with in Kent.

Lidl’s hopes of building a store in Queenborough, on the Isle of Sheppey, were rocked as recently as November after planning permission was overturned by the High Court.

Its plans were dashed after Aldi launched a legal challenge on the basis that a planning officer's report did not address heritage assets properly.

Lawyers from the supermarkets and Swale Borough Council agreed the planning permission had been given unlawfully leading to the High Court quashing the decision.

It means the application will now have to go back to the council and the promise of 40 more jobs for the Island has been delayed again.