Work on a new multi-million pound supermarket is nearing completion but its opening date has been delayed.

Plans for a new Aldi on Sheppey were given the green light by Swale council’s planning committee in December 2022.

The discount giant is spending £9 million

on building a branch at Neats Court in Queenborough and construction work started last year.

The German company revealed last autumn the store would be open this April.

However, the retailer has now confirmed this is not the case.

An Aldi spokesman would not give the reason for the delay but said a new opening date would be revealed soon.

When it eventually opens, the existing Aldi in Sheerness town centre will shut and is due to be replaced by Home Bargains.

New drone footage appears to show the Neats Court branch is at an advanced stage.

The main building is up, while work continues on the access road and car park,

Once finished, up to 40 new jobs will be created.

A total of 30 staff from the Sheerness store are due to be transferred over.

The Neats Court site will be a third larger than the existing premises with 134 parking spaces - 59 more than in Sheerness.

It will also have new cycle and pedestrian links.

Aldi began talks with the council about a new store in 2017.

It submitted plans in June 2019 after declaring its 15-year-old branch in Sheerness, between Pepys Avenue and Millennium Way, was "no longer fit for purpose".

Despite being given the go-ahead in November 2020, construction was delayed when rival Tesco had the permission quashed in the High Court the following October.

By then, Aldi had already put its Sheerness store in Millennium Way on the market for £2 million.

The council was recommended to refuse the resubmitted plans in November 2022 after planning officer Paul Gregory said closing the current shop would have a detrimental effect on the town.

Aldi warned the council that its existing site was too small and would be closed even if its plans for the new store were rejected.

Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson said “turning down the Aldi application, which incidentally has already been approved once, will have an impact on jobs and the wider Sheppey community”.

He added it would be "illogical" because the retailer had made it clear it was quitting Sheerness and that Home Bargains would have a "positive impact" on the town and the Island "as a whole".

In December 2022, councillors voted by 14 to one in favour of allowing the resubmitted plans.

Speaking online about its upcoming opening, one person said: "Tesco has always had the monopoly and now thankfully more things are being built.

"I've been on the island for 44 years and couldn't be happier."

Meanwhile, rival Lidl had plans for a new store at Cowstead Corner approved in January.

It is understood the budget supermarket will be releasing an update about its proposals for Sheppey in the near future.