Work to build shops in the Thistle Hill estate in Minster could begin before the end of the year.

Last week we reported on a planning application which was submitted for two retail units and 34 parking spaces at Aspen Drive, Minster.

One of them, measuring 1,000 sq ft, has been designated for a shop while the other, measuring more than 4,000 sq ft, could also be used for shops or a restaurant, cafe, drinking establishment, takeaway or financial and professional business.

Names of who could potentially fill the shops are yet to be revealed.

Residents have been waiting for the shops since 2007 when they were included as a condition of developer Bovis’s original planning permission.

Swale council granted extensions for the delivery of the units in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Bovis now has a deadline of January to build them. It previously blamed the delays on difficulty in attracting retailers to the site.

A spokesman for the firm said: “We are working with Commercial Development Projects Ltd, and a planning application has been submitted for the retail site in Thistle Hill Village Centre. Negotiations are still ongoing but further details about tenants will be revealed in due course.

“If planning permission is granted, we anticipate that work will start on site before the end of the year.”

The plans were met with scepticism by borough and parish councillor Ken Ingleton (Con) who said he would not believe the proposals were genuine until they were actually built.