Supermarket giant Aldi wants to overturn a long-standing planning restriction to establish a new shop on a retail park in Droitwich.

The German discount food chain, which has more than 300 stores in the UK, and Parkridge Retail have submitted two planning applications for the former Miller Brothers electrical shop at Unit 2 Roman Way Retail Park, Kidderminster Road.

One application is to change a condition, imposed when the park was built 23 years ago, prohibiting food sales, and the other is for a small extension, internal alterations and refurbishment of the building.

Wychavon District Council principal planning officer Mike Hurst said: "There is a condition on the original planning application that it will not be used for a food store, to avoid conflict with the food stores in the town centre."

He added that an application was submitted in the 1990s for a food store on a site beside tje Roman Way Retail Park but the district council resisted it and houses were eventually built on the site.

Mr Hurst said a request to change the condition could be decided by officers if there were no objections during the consultation period, but given the background policy relating to the site, officers would recommend refusal if the proposal goes before the development control committee.

"It should be straightforward from a policy point of view because we have resisted these things before," he said.

Aldi's planning consultants White Young Green say the proposed store, with a turnover of about £4.4 million a year, would help to claw back some of the £22.2 million of food spending lost from Droitwich to Bromsgrove and Worcester.

Aldi's property director for the Midlands Richard Labbett said: "We are confident about the applications. It has cost tens of thousands of pounds to put in the applications. Our type of store complements stores that are already in Droitwich town centre. Shoppers would not be able to get everything from us.

"It is very difficult to find appropriate sites in this day and age. It is very difficult to see any land that is ever going to come up in Droitwich. We have gone for an area that has retail use. We are having to look at these locations to give people a better choice and drive prices down."

A decision by Wychavon District Council on the two applications is expected by Friday, July 20.