The city council has given the green light to a new Aldi supermarket in Herne Bay as part of a £50 million regeneration plan for the town centre.

The decision was taken by council officers in private last week under delegated powers because there was not enough opposition for it to be put to the planning committee.

Work is set to start early next year and will be carried out by Herne Bay Regeneration Limited, an umbrella company for developers Coplan Estates, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Denne Construction.

Cllr Peter Lee revealed the news at a meeting of Herne Bay councillors at The Retreat Club on Tuesday night.

He said: “Last week the council approved planning permission for a new Aldi under delegated powers. Work can now start, and they will hopefully start building the store at the beginning of next year.”

The 18,000 sq ft store will have a new customer entrance at the corner of Beach Street and Hanover Street, with warehousing at the opposite corner, and 78 parking spaces opening into King’s Road.

Once completed, it will end the first phase of the Herne Bay regeneration plan, with attention then switching to transforming the William Street car park into a new shopping square with other big name stores.

Cllr Andrew Cook (Con), who has welcomed the news, said: “It’s fantastic that they got the thumbs up. I’ve had people talking to me in the streets worried it wasn’t going ahead.

“The latest batch of rumours were only two days ago, but now it is up to the developers to crack on and get building. It is a commercial venture so it’s down to them, but every signal is positive.”

Independent business guru Nigel Hancock said retailers in the town hope it will bring more footfall back to the centre.

He said: “It adds another big name for the town along with Sainsbury’s. Morrisons need more competition, so it might push them to up their game. It will also be a more attractive building than what is there now.”

Fears were raised several times that the scheme might not be going ahead, with concerns about potential ground contamination under the former gasworks in the King’s Road car park site.

Delays were also caused because the council had to find a new home for Saturday market traders, who used to sell their wares at the site, but have now moved to the town centre.

But in September, Aldi spokesman Dawn Hesketh rubbished rumours that they intended to pull out, saying: “We remain committed to opening a store in Herne Bay. We exchanged contracts on this site in October 2013.”

She added that if the planning application were to be approved then Aldi would hope to open a store in early 2016.

It could be joined by a large Sainsbury's supermarket at the Altira Business Park site near Beltinge, which was granted planning permission a fortnight ago.