UK Land Estates said it received planning permission for a major project to increase the size of Blaydon town centre in Gateshead with a new supermarket, shops and restaurants.

The new shops and other facilities would be built on the Churchill’s site off Chain Bridge Road, close to the existing town centre in Blaydon.

It is hoped that the development would create 170 permanent jobs, both full-time and part-time, as well as a further 95 in the construction phase.

UK Land Estates said it is one of the major developers of commercial property in the North and owns a number of sites on the Team Valley Trading Estate in Gateshead.

It has worked with Tyneside architects FaulknerBrowns on the Blaydon project.

The three-hectares development site has a number of small businesses on it — and UK Land Estates said it is “working to find new homes for those companies.”

A spokesman for UK Land Estates said: “We are delighted to have received planning permission to develop this site.

“It promises to be an exciting future for Blaydon, with a bigger and better town centre capable of attracting shoppers from a wider area.

“We are in discussions with a number of major companies and we hope to announce a start date for the development soon.”