A budget supermarket chain has been given the green light to build in Macclesfield.

German chain Lidl - famed for its cut price produce - has been given permission to open a new store on the site known as the ‘Towers’ on Parsonage Street.

The store will bring with it the equivalent of 25 full-time jobs.

The application was unanimously approved by councillors at the Northern Planning Meeting at Macclesfield Town Hall this afternoon (Wednesday, January 17).

Seconding Councillor Carolyn Andrew’s proposal to approve the application, Coun Liz Durham said: “This proposal would bring economic benefits through the delivery of new retail, jobs and investments, bringing a prominent, vacant brownfield site that we all have hated for many, many years into viable use, and in one of the key gateways to Macclesfield town centre.”

She added that it will also bring more footfall into the town centre.

She added: “We lost our fight against losing an out of town centre, we do not want to lose this one. I would very much welcome it.”

The application also claims it will help to regenerate the Park Green and High Street Conservation area by removing unsightly buildings.