The newly-approved plans will transform 17 acres of land in the town centre into a 1.6 million-sq ft retail, leisure and residential destination. Thornfield's revised plans include a new department store of 77,000 sq ft for Marks & Spencer, which will sit alongside the planned 103,000-sq ft Debenhams store at the eastern end of the scheme.

Thornfield's scheme will also deliver 60 other retail units, including a 20,000-sq ft store for Next, a 10-screen Vue Cinema, an AMF ten pin bowling alley, eight restaurants and a 1,250-space multi-storey car park. There will also be a total of 397 apartments as well as a PCT walk-in centre that will accommodate 24 hour medical care, an A&E department, three doctors' practices and dentistry facilities.

The Rock will be delivered in phases; a new ring road will be open later this year, followed by the medical centre, which is scheduled to open in summer 2008. The main retail and leisure elements are planned to open in 2010.

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