ALDI is set to move ahead with plans to build a new store in Tranent after it was granted a licence to sell alcohol.

The discount supermarket chain had agreed to buy the site of the former Tranmare Hotel in the town from owners Punch Taverns, if it received its licence.

The new store is expected to create up to 30 local jobs.

The firm told East Lothian Council’s licensing board it estimates the town is missing out on a staggering £18.7m of grocery expenditure, with many people going elsewhere to do their shopping.

It hopes to reclaim some of that “leakage” when it opens its new store in the town.

The store will be Aldi’s third store in East Lothian – the others are in Musselburgh and Haddington – and will have its own dedicated car park and a hi-tech CCTV system.

The licensing board heard only eight per cent of stock would be alcohol-based and the company does not stock high-caffeine tonic wines, super-strength lagers or super-strength ciders and alcopops.

It also provides no refrigeration for alcohol so it is not readily available to buy and drink straight away.

A spokesman for Aldi told the board that without a licence to sell alcohol, the store would not go ahead in Tranent.

He said: “If shoppers are in buying their pasta for dinner, and cannot buy a bottle of wine to go with it, then we can lose the entire basket, because they will not shop with us.

“It is essential we can offer what they need to keep them shopping with us.” The licence was approved unanimously by the board.

Representatives from Aldi will be at the next Tranent and Elphinstone Community Council meeting on May 20 in Tranent Day Centre at 7pm.