A NEW supermarket with 80 parking spaces could be built at Ely s Lisle Lane. The plan for the 1,500 square-metre store has been outlined for the prime Thurlow Nunn Standen site. If the plans are successful the site will also house another 476 square metr

A NEW supermarket with 80 parking spaces could be built at Ely's Lisle Lane.

The plan for the 1,500 square-metre store has been outlined for the prime Thurlow Nunn Standen site.

If the plans are successful the site will also house another 476 square metre non-food shop and three three-bedroom homes linked to the town centre by a walkway through to Market Place.

Thurlow Nunn Standen, the UK's largest Massey Ferguson agricultural machinery dealer, plans to move out of the city to Littleport.

It will amalgamate its Ely workforce with those from its Downham Market branch - a total of about 40 staff - at a new two-acre purpose built centre in Wisbech Road on January 14.

Managing director, James Thurlow, said: "We have grown out of both of our sites. We are taking all our staff with us and we have already created some new jobs."

The family-owned business has been in Ely since 1970 and at its Downham Market site for the last 70 years.

Plans for the supermarket have been submitted to East Cambridgeshire District Council by Hertfordshire-based Chaldean Properties.

Speculation was growing this week that low cost German supermarket giant, Aldi, would make a bid for the new store after Chaldean lodged an objection to Lidl's plans to open a supermarket at Angel Drove.

But a spokesperson for the company said: "Aldi has no immediate plans for a new store in Ely."

Recently, the district council rejected a plan by Focus DIY to open a store in Lisle Lane claiming it could harm the "vitality and vibrancy" of the city centre.