NEW life is coming to a crime-hit shopping centre on Teesside.

After years of gradual decline and several months of vandalism, arson attacks and break-ins, a new supermarket will replace 20 shopping units at Eston, near Middlesbrough.

Councillors yesterday approved the plans by Aldi to redevelop much of Eston Square, which has declined since Safeway and Presto left the area. George Dunning, lead member of Redcar and Cleveland council for regeneration, addressed a planning meeting at Eston Town Hall in which he derided "cynics in the town" who suggested the store would never be built.

He said: "Aldi have had great difficulty with this. They've had to negotiate with 17 businesses in the area and that is why it has taken some time.

"We must now hope that this will encourage other businesses to stay and new ones to come.

"There have been cynical people in Eston who thought the new Aldi was never going to come but they've been proven wrong."

Councillor Arthur Dobson said people living in the area would be overjoyed at the development. He said: "This will make a 100 per cent difference to the area.

"I notice there were no objections. I'm sure that if we had actually gone and asked how many people actually wanted this to happen we would have had a 100 per cent of people actually wanting it."

But other councillors, while voting for approval for the plan, sounded notes of caution. Keith Pudney said other problems would remain.

He said: "One thing that blights Eston Square is the take-aways and obscene looking shutters which give it the appearance of the Alamo at times.

"In all honesty there have been a number of developments happen at Eston Square and none have had a positive effect."

Councillor Peter Spencer remarked that the best thing to do would be to "start again from scratch".

Aldi is expected to start development in the new year.

The store will be built on the western side of Eston Square once existing units are demolished.

The supermarket will be a brick-built, single-storey building with a floor area of 1130sq metres.

An existing car park will be resurfaced and enlarged.