ANOTHER supermarket has put Malton firmly in its sights.

Heron Foods, which has a store in Wheelgate, wants to expand by merging three retails units further along the same street that are owned by the Fitzwilliam Estate Malton, and include the former Stead and Simpson store.

Heron Foods has drawn up plans for a new shop front, single-storey extension and rear first-floor service bridge to the car park.

A spokesman for Heron Foods said Malton was a very established store, but had outgrown the space available. “We have been at the existing site for some time and, with a growing customer base, we are looking to expand both our store size and products available,” he said. “Our stores are all neighbourhood-type shops located on the high street where they compliment other traders and help attract people to the high street where they then spend money in other stores.”

Tobias Burckhardt, Fitzwilliam Malton Estate’s surveyor, said: “We have been working with Heron to find them a larger shop in Malton. I understand the firm has submitted a planning application and are delighted the project is at this stage.”

The move follows news the family-owned supermarket Booths has entered negotiations to lease a proposed supermarket which forms the anchor of the livestock market redevelopment scheme in Malton.

Plans have also been submitted by GMI Holbeck for a store on Wentworth Street car park. A date for a debate on this has yet to be fixed.

A spokesman for GMI Holbeck Land said: “It is good to see existing retailers investing in Malton and reducing the shop vacancy rate further. This expanded store will no doubt provide more competition and consumer choice in the town and we are sure would work well alongside our own store.

Our proposed store at Wentworth Street clearly will have a different offer and appeal. Ours will have free parking and a new petrol station. In turn, this will benefit to the whole town by encouraging more people to shop in Malton instead of York and Scarborough.”

This week Malton was named as one of the best places to live in the UK by two national newspapers.

Metro described Malton as a “smart market town in the throes of an epicurean renaissance” and the Sunday Times named Malton in its Top 100 Places To Live in the UK.