A NEW supermarket, which will breathe a new lease of life into one of Newton Abbot’s biggest eyesores, is to be built ‘shortly’.

German discount retailer Aldi were give the green-light to build a new store on the edge of the town earlier this year.

But the project has shown little sign of life since district planners gave the seal of approval in February.

Aldi are set to transform the defunct David and Charles book publishing site, at the Brunel Industrial Estate, into a brand spanking new outlet.

The prominent crumbling building, at the Torquay entrance to Newton Abbot, has fallen to rack and ruin since it closed several years ago.

Vandals, squatters and anti-social youths have targeted the empty building and blighted it with unsightly graffiti.

But bosses at the German company revealed this week that townsfolk won’t have to put up with the blot on the landscape for much longer.

‘We will be starting the construction of our Newton Abbot store shortly and hope to open it in Spring next year.

‘This will create up to 50 jobs for the community.’

Heritage campaigners had been fighting to stop German retailer Aldi ripping down an old wagon repair store on the Brunel Industrial Estate and replace it with a store.

But despite temporarily halting the scheme on legal grounds, the battle was lost with district planners giving the thumbs up.