Hundreds of new jobs are set to be created in the north-east after revived plans for a major retail park in Peterhead were lodged.
A hotel, pub, shops, restaurants and a supermarket with a filling station have been proposed for the Buchan Gateway area on the outskirts of the town.
They had collapsed last year after negotiations with big-name brands ground to a halt.
Hermiston Securities – which made the bid – previously had permission for a 45-bedroom hotel on the site, but let its planning permission expire before ground was ever broken. The same firm brought B&Q to the town 10 years ago.
Last night, the revised development, which has now been lodged with Aberdeenshire Council planners, was welcomed by Buchan MP Eilidh Whiteford whose constituency offices are near the proposed site.
She said: “This project is still at an early stage and detail will be important, but any investment that promises to bring such a substantial number of jobs to the area is to be welcomed.”
The park’s offerings – with each unit to be no smaller than 5,000sq ft – will be spread over more than 20 acres and could create up to 450 part-time jobs.
Hermiston’s development manager John Evans-Freke said he expected at least 240 full-time jobs to be available.
Mr Evan-Freke previously said it would be “impractical” for the jobs not to be offered to locals.
He said: “We’re based in Fife and it would be impractical to bring our own labour.
“When we built B&Q, the Les Taylor Group did the groundwork and we had painters and electricians from across the town involved.”
The chairman of the Buchan area committee, Peterhead councillor Stuart Pratt, added that the hope for new jobs would be a key consideration for councillors when it comes time to vote on whether or not to approve the bid.
“Jobs are always going to be welcome in Peterhead, and there’s a lot of people who do want part-time jobs because they’re perhaps looking after children – they’ll be very welcome,” he said.
The scheme is a redevelopment of Herminston’s original plans for the site which were hailed as a major boost for the economy when they were first unveiled in 2006. The original multimillion-pound projects would have provided nearly 300 new full and part-time posts.
But the firm had been forced to abandon its original plans in October last year after negotiations with big-name traders and a hotel chain stalled.