A MAJOR supermarket proposal for Huddersfield town centre is nearly ready.

Kirklees Council revealed yesterday that planners would decide “imminently” whether Tesco could demolish the flats at Southgate to build a new store.

But a second supermarket plan in the town centre – Asda’s proposed new store next to the ring road – has been held up.

Tesco wants to demolish Huddersfield Sports Centre and the Ibbotson and Lonsbrough Flats at Southgate to build a new store.

A Kirklees spokeswoman said yesterday that the application was almost ready to go in front of the council’s Huddersfield Planning Sub-committee.

She said: “Negotiations between Tesco and the local planning authority are nearing completion and an announcement of an intended date for when the planning application will be put before the sub-committee is likely to be imminent.”

If planning permission is granted, the new store would open in 2014.

The Tesco proposal is part of a wider reorganisation of Huddersfield town centre.

Planners gave permission in November for a new sports centre at Spring Grove car park. The £36m state-of-the-art centre will replace the existing one at Southgate, which is due to make way for a new Tesco.

The retail giant wants to demolish its current town centre store at Viaduct Street so it can use it to build a hotel, housing, shops and offices by 2016.

Meanwhile, a second major supermarket development in Huddersfield town centre has been held up.

Asda wants to build a 49,000sq ft store on land currently occupied by Thomas Broadbent and Sons between the ring road, Chapel Hill, Milford Street and Queen Street South.

The engineering firm won planning permission in July to move all its operations on to the eastern side of Queen Street South next to the Examiner building.

The decision freed the land at the western side of Queen Street South for Asda.

But a Kirklees spokeswoman said yesterday that negotiations were still ongoing, 18 months after the supermarket chain submitted a planning application.

She said: “A list of planning and highway issues that require further work was put to Asda’s representatives last March by the local planning authority.

“However, the applicants have not progressed these issues in any significant manner as yet.

“A date for the planning application to be heard by the Huddersfield Planning Committee is yet to be determined.”