Budget supermarket chain Aldi is planning to open a new store on one of Birmingham's busiest commuter roads - 11 years after first acquiring the site.

The German group has returned again with plans to build a supermarket on derelict land fronting the A38 near Longbridge.

The application site, at 1631-1649 Bristol Road South, was previously home to a Texaco petrol station but has now become heavily overgrown and run down.

The new supermarket will create 20 full-time jobs and have parking for 81 cars, including staff spaces, and eight bikes.

It will neighbour a McDonald's drive thru and be housed in a dense residential area on one of the city's most heavily used roads.

It will be pitched into competition with Sainsbury's in Longbridge town centre and Morrisons on Great Park, both of which are less than a mile away.

Aldi has been planning to redevelop the site for more than a decade after acquiring the majority of it in 2006 but the firm was refused planning permission in both 2006 and 2007.

CGI of the new Aldi planned in Longbridge
CGI of the new Aldi planned in Longbridge

This was on the grounds of design and impact on the character and visual amenities of the site and surrounding area and the flood risk posed by the River Rea which runs very close to the application plot.

Aldi had failed to demonstrate the site was not at risk of flooding and a subsequent appeal was dismissed by the Planning Inspector, according to newly submitted planning documents which also acknowledge the risk of flooding still exists.

In 2015, the chain again unveiled plans to open there but this time with a regional training centre alongside a supermarket.

This project joins a long list of activity in Birmingham's supermarket sector with new stores opening across the city.

Morrisons and Tesco have both launched large supermarkets close to the city centre, in Hagley Road and Icknield Street respectively, although the latter subsequently closed its store at Five Ways island in 2015.

Aldi has also applied for planning permission to build a new supermarket in Pershore Road, Stirchley, just a few hundred metres from where Lidl is hoping to launch a store in place of a Fitness First gym.

Tesco started work on its long-awaited new supermarket in Stirchley before eventually abandoning the plans earlier this year.