A new Sainsbury’s supermarket will create more than 300 jobs in Tonbridge under plans unveiled to the public at the weekend.

Planning permission is set to be sought later this year, with developers hoping the store will be built by 2017.

The supermarket is part of a series of regeneration plans for Tonbridge town centre including a new cinema and leisure centre.

Yet concerns were raised about parking levels by people at an exhibition of the plans in Tonbridge Caste on Friday and Saturday.

Should planning permission be granted, the first move will be to build a new community and leisure centre on the former Bradford Street car park.

Built at no cost to council tax payers, the new centre will have a swimming pool, outdoor sports pitches, tennis courts, bowls club, children’s play areas, a ball court and skate park.

This would replace the Angel Centre, opened in 1981, which will remain open until the new facility is built.

It will also include replacement facilities for Age UK, which is currently operating from outdated facilities on site.

Wider regeneration plans will then progress on the site of the Angel Centre, Beales and within the building of the new Sainsbury’s store.

The town’s existing Sainsbury’s would not close until the new store is ready to open.

Once the new Sainsbury’s store is operational, the additional car park, retail units, restaurants and cinema would be built.

A new petrol station will be constructed once the new car park is complete, offering 842 spaces to serve the new retail units, cinema and Sainsbury’s store.

Overall the mood was positive at the public exhibition, which had been visited by more than 300 people by noon on its first day.

"I would not like to see the likes of Frankie and Benny’s and that sort of rubbish. That we can do without..." - resident Paul Marsh

Paul Marsh, of Delius Drive, said: “The new sports facilities will be a great improvement.

“My main concern is whether or not we are losing car parking space in the town centre.

“My other concern will be the quality of restaurants around the new cinema complex. I would not like to see the likes of Frankie and Benny’s and that sort of rubbish. That we can do without.

“So long as they are a reasonable quality they will enhance the town centre.”

Mike Sanders, 76, of Pennington Place, said: "I’m not sure about the cinema.

"That will give us 12 cinemas in the area. I’m happy to go to the cinema at the hospital but I understand people prefer it to in the town as it always used to be.

“It is good for trade and regeneration but does it need to be so big?”

Ellen Ings, 74, of Dernier Road, said: “My concern is the toilets. When mothers go shopping and have two or three children with them they have got to take them in with them.

“They need plenty of space for public toilets which are not so small. The elderly need space.”

The focus from Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council was on the economic benefits of the plans.

Tonbridge and Malling council leader Nicolas Heslop said: “We have got evidence that the high street has been suffering. This is aimed at improving the economic activity within the town centre.

“It has been a long-stadning priority of the borough council and a significant aim is to improve the retail offer we have in the town and increase the footfall on the high street.”