A NEW Lidl currently under construction in Bingley is to open its doors in early spring next year, the supermarket chain has confirmed.

The new store will be in Main Street, on the former Bradford & Bingley building society site.

Work is coming along on the building, with the initial structure in place and a car park area beginning to take shape.

A spokesperson for the supermarket said it represents a "multi-million pound investment", will have a 1,325m² sales area with facilities including an in-store bakery, customer toilets, plus "ample parking" for cars and bicycles.

The new store will also create up to 40 new jobs.

Planning permission was granted in February and the budget supermarket is working with local firm Stainforth Construction on the new build.

News of the store was welcomed when plans were given the green light.

Jamie Illingworth, Bingley Chamber of Trade and Commerce president described the supermarket as the "final piece of the economic jigsaw in the town centre".

While Shipley MP Philip Davies said the supermarket would provide an increase in footfall to Bingley's town centre.

The opening of the new supermarket will mark a new chapter for the land following a chequered history.

Sainsbury's bought the site in 2010, winning planning permission to demolish the former Bradford & Bingley building and construct a new store in 2011.

But in 2013, the retail giant dropped a bombshell on the town by suddenly shelving plans, saying the economic downturn had a "serious impact" on the viability of the project.

It was subsequently dropped from the supermarket's 2013/14 construction programme.

Then in April 2015, as demolition was going ahead, the chain put the site on the market.

Concerns were then raised about the look of the "eyesore" site, with Bingley Town Council urging Sainsbury's to take action to make the area look more presentable.

The next chapter for the beleaguered site came in January 2017, when it was sold to Lidl.

The new branch will add to Lidl UK’s portfolio of more than 700 stores. The first Lidl store opened in Germany in 1973 and the first UK store opened its doors in 1994.

The former Bradford & Bingley headquarters were built in 1975, in the brutalist style, with a ziggurat design inspired by the nearby Five Rise Locks