Supermarket chain Morrisons has been granted an alcohol licence for a new petrol station at Dalton Park.
Company bosses had said they planned to open the new store in Murton this week (Monday, June 8) regardless of whether the application had been approved.
But Durham County Council has confirmed that as no objections to the proposal had been submitted by Monday’s (June 8) deadline it would be given the green light.
The new licence gives the store permission to sell alcohol and hot food from the site near the entrance to the retail park up to midnight, seven days a week.
Plans for a petrol station and supermarket to be built at Dalton Park were given the go-ahead by county planning chiefs in 2014 and the site handed over to Morrisons as part of a £45 million expansion plan.
But shoppers have been in limbo since 2016, when the retailer put its plans on hold.
A spokeswoman for the firm has previously confirmed that despite its intention to open the petrol station it has no ‘immediate plans to operate the main store building’.
The retailer’s actions have faced criticism from Easington MP Grahame Morris, who predicted a Morrisons store could be ‘popular and successful’ in Murton.
But he added the firm should consider passing the site to another company, rather than continue to ‘hold a lease on an empty retail unit’.
Dalton Park has been closed for the duration of the coronavirus lockdown, but is expected to reopen from Monday (June 15) along with other ‘non-essential’ businesses.
