SHOPPERS have reacted with delight at a public exhibition of plans for a new M&S Simply Food store in Chippenham.

Many travelled down to the planned site, which sits on Bath Road Retail Park next to TK Maxx and Next, during the opening hour of the exhibition.

Planning consultants NLP Planning are running the exhibition between 10am and 4pm today (Friday) and tomorrow. Around 4000 mail shots have been sent to residents in the nearby area giving them chance to respond to the plans if they are unable to attend in person.

Mary Norton, of Queens Crescent in Chippenham, currently travels to Bath to visit an M&S Food outlet and said: “I have waited for this for years. I am thankful there’s something positive that we can look at and hope for.”

While Heather Stevens, of Southmead in Chippenham, said: “We are very pleased its coming, my father lives in Newbury so we do a lot of our shopping in M&S there. I think you can rely on the quality, it will be nice to get something different.”

Marks and Spencer Simply Food are hoping to open the new store by September 2016 subject to planning permission which is required to sell food from the retail unit.

The company plan to install a mezzanine level for stock and staff areas and possible a small M&S cafe.

The new store should create 50 jobs in the town.

Marks and Spencers have been looking for a site in Chippenham for a number of years and were originally planning on moving into a redeveloped Bridge Centre store. However, with that deal falling through, they have now opted for the out of town unit opposite Sainsbury’s.

Frogwell resident, Peter James, said: “We go to Devizes and Cirencester at the moment, if we need to but we think it should be in the town, we like the products but they need to be in the town not here were you have come in a car.”

Chippenham Business Improvement District (BID) has also stated that while M&S Simply Food was a “significant boost” for Chippenham they would have liked to see it open in the town centre.

Lewis Conde from NLP Planning said: “We have looked at available sites in the town centre and we are still undertaking that work but M&S have been looking at sites for eight years and this is a suitable site.

“It’s early at the moment but I have not heard any negative comments, Chippenham seems very suitable for M&S and that is being fed back by residents who are saying yes please.”