LONG-RUNNING plans for a supermarket-sized food store in Magor are back on the cards after an amended application was submitted to Monmouthshire council.

Magor Motors proposes to demolish its existing site to make way for a new village shop and widen shopping choices in the area.

Plans were approved in 2012, subject to the signing of a section 106 agreement, but since then the application has remained undetermined.

The applicant, Magor Motors, has now submitted amended information and hopes to move the plans forward.

Ben Morgan, from the family-owned business, said: “We do need more retail shops in Magor.

“Magor square is nice but it does cost and sometimes you want a bit more variety.

“As a consumer there’s no harm in having options.”

Under the plans, the store would have a gross retail floorspace of 910 sq. meters, with a sales area of 651 sq. meters.

Around 90 per cent of the sales area will house convenience goods, with the remaining 10 per cent including items such as health and beauty products.

Basket and top-up shopping will be the main use of the proposed store, with a limited number of small trolleys available for customers.

The only convenience store currently in Magor is a Co-op, with many people in the village doing their regular shop in Caldicot, Newport and Chepstow, a retails assessment submitted with the application says.

The assessment says Magor currently acts as predominantly a ‘top-up’ shopping destination.

“By providing a supermarket-sized store in Magor, that will allow trolley shopping, more of the residents will be encouraged to undertake both their top-up and main food shops in the village,” the application says.

The store will also generate additional linked trips, it is said, which will benefit other traders in Magor.

It is estimated an additional £220,000 per year could be spent in the village centre, the retail assessment says.

The turnover for the proposed store in 2021 is estimated to be £6.19 million, on the basis the store could open by 2019.

The proposed store will provide 26 car parking spaces, which shoppers will also be able to use to walk to The Square in Magor.

Since the amended plans were submitted, comments of support and objection have been lodged.

The postmaster in Magor square is among those to have voiced his support, saying the development could help businesses in the village.

But objectors have raised concerns that the store could create traffic problems.

View the plans at monmouthshire.gov.uk, searching reference DC/2011/00083.