Supermarket giant to open first store in Durham city centre creating new jobs

Supermarket giant Asda is set to open its first ever store within Durham City as part of a new development.

County Durham firm Banks Group has submitted plans to create an Asda Express convenience store on The Drive at the Mount Oswald development. If approved, construction could begin later in the year, with the store expected to create up to 17 new jobs.

Asda Express stores stock up to 3,000 branded and own-label products to suit a range of customer needs.

Helen Cullen, acquisition manager for Asda, said: “We’re always looking at new opportunities to serve local communities, so we’re delighted to be working with the Banks Group to bring an Asda Express convenience store to Durham City.

“This is an exciting development for us to be a part of and we look forward to catering for a broad range of customer needs, whether that’s popping in for a pint of milk, grabbing a spot of lunch on the go or buying the fresh ingredients to cook dinner from scratch. We’re confident that residents will enjoy the convenience of having Asda’s quality and low prices on their doorstop for years to come.”

The 3,000 sqft store is proposed for a site on the northern side of the Mount Oswald site, opposite South College and close to the Howlands Park & Ride.

The planning application also includes purpose-built student accommodation above the retail space, which has been designed by Gradon Architecture, which includes a mixture of 92 studio apartments and shared flats aimed at mature students, which come with their own parking spaces.

The Banks Group has been progressing its development proposals for Mount Oswald since they were first approved by Durham County Council over a decade ago, and now includes around 290 properties that have been built by David Wilson Homes and Bellway Homes.

The group’s regional housebuilding company, Banks Homes, is currently building nine luxury homes in the centre of the Mount Oswald site which will comprise Durham City’s most exclusive residential development, Symeon Court.

John Ruddick, principal development manager at Banks Property, said: “We’ve always envisaged this part of the Mount Oswald site as being perfect for retail use and we had a lot of interest in it from many of the UK’s best-known retailers. Asda showed huge enthusiasm for opening their first Durham City store at the Mount Oswald site and we’re extremely pleased to be working with such a well-known and respected brand.

“The new store would be ideally located for residents living in and around the area, as well as people passing through it, and we strongly believe that this represents the best option for providing the retail element of the Mount Oswald site that we’d always promised to deliver.”

Gradon Architecture’s MD Graham McDarby added: “With over 15 years of industry experience in a range of sectors, the last few years have proved challenging for many businesses, including our own. This project has been in the making for over three years and it is now extremely satisfying to see it coming to fruition, testament to the resilience of our own business and that of Banks. We now look forward to seeing the project become reality on site.”