New plans to expand a budget supermarket have been submitted after a five-year delay.

The proposals for Aldi in East Street, Sittingbourne include knocking down the empty Swale Martial Arts Club building next door to make way for a bigger shop.

Planning permission for the discount supermarket's expansion has been granted twice by Swale council already, firstly in December 2018 and then in March last year.

But bosses of the German-owned giant told councillors they wanted to wait until the store in Neats Court, Queenborough, on the Isle of Sheppey, was open so Sittingbourne shoppers would have an alternative during construction.

Drone footage showed the £9 million Sheppey store under construction in November. Aldi expects the store to welcome its first customers in April.

The current Sittingbourne store, which is more than 20 years old, is 1,040 sq m and Aldi plans to replace it with a larger shop.

Planning documents show that the new store will be 20m larger in length but will not be taller than 8.1m – the height of the current shop.

Aldi said it aims to have the expansion completed by the end of the year.

There are 35 colleagues employed at the store and this number is expected to increase.

The total size of the site will be 2,014sq m, with the area currently occupied by the martial arts building incorporated into the Aldi supermarket.

The ex-club building has been vacant since 2019 when it moved away from its East Street base.

An extra 27 car parking spaces are also included in the plans taking the total from 75 to 102. Six of these will be disabled bays and seven will be parent and child spaces.

This is 15 less than the last set of plans which offered a total of 113 spaces. Also included in the proposals are 12 cycling spaces.

Windows will face out towards both East Street and the car park, which will still be accessed from St Michael's Road.

When scaffolding was erected at the Sittingbourne site last summer, shoppers hoped it was the start of the expansion but this turned out to be roof renovations.

The latest planning application comes after Aldi announced it would be investing more than £18 million into new stores and upgrades in Kent.

This is part of the German retailer’s UK-wide expansion which includes an investment of £1.4 billion during 2023 and 2024 after Aldi attracted more new customers than any other supermarket in the last 12 months.

Some 1,500 new jobs will be created across the country thanks to the investment.

Aldi has been approached for comment.