Aldi has announced £800million to be spent adding to their portfolio of stores, including one in East Lancashire - but still no progress for Darwen.

The supermarket tycoon plans to open 23 locations, including a store in Bacup – to accelerate its expansion across towns and cities.

With currently more than 1,000 stores, they have previously announced plans to scale to 1,500 stores across the UK and Aldi has confirmed Lancashire is among the areas it is focusing on. 

To speed up the building process current works at Bacup’s new store intend to use fake stone as pressure has built with Christmas beckoning.

Their new request was considered by Rossendale Council at a meeting last week with a sample of the material needing to be displayed on site and approved by the council for work to progress.

Richard Thornton, communications director at Aldi UK, said: “We are committed to bringing high quality, affordable groceries to millions more British families.

“With more than 1,000 stores across the country, our footprint is growing, but we know there are still a number of towns that either don’t have an Aldi or have shown demand for more stores."

However, despite earmarking Darwen as the next area for development last year, no formal progression has been made as a potential site is still hoping to be located.

They are still searching for freehold town-centre, edge-of-centre, and retail park sites suitable for property development with Penwortham also identified as a possible location.

The sites should be able to accommodate a 20,000 sq foot store with around 100 parking spaces. Ideally, the location will be near a main road with good visibility and access.

Recent price comparisons by consumer group Which? named Aldi as this year's UK’s cheapest grocer after investing £100m in over 300 price cuts in the last three months.