A STORE expansion in Darlington will have a massive impact on the town if it is approved, according to a marketing expert.

Safeway wants to extend its Victoria Road store, transforming it under its Megastore brand to offer a wider variety of merchandise.

It proposes to utilise 1,900 square metres of the shop's 2,700 sq m extension as retail space for non-food goods.

But Malcolm Goodman, lecturer in marketing at the University of Durham Business School, said that such a huge expansion would undoubtedly have a significant impact on other traders in the town.

He said: "This is a new venture by Safeway to compete with the big boys. They are wanting to get a captive audience and then get people to buy bigger items like TVs.

"It could definitely spark a price war. If it is offering free parking, that is a big draw. It will have an immense effect on trading patterns in the town.

"It sounds like Safeway have made a move to see if they can drive out the rest of the competition to give them a monopoly.

"It is part of a greater move among supermarkets to become more like department stores. In a sense, it is like trying to become a separate little shopping mall, so people don't need to go anywhere else."

A spokesman for Darlington Borough Council said he was concerned at Safeway's claims that the single-storey extension to the Victoria Road store would lead to between 200 and 300 extra jobs being created.

He said the company had stated on the planning application that between 50 and 100 full and part-time positions would be created.

"The application states that 1,900 sq metres of the extension will be used as retail floor space for non-food goods. We need clarification of the non-food goods they plan to stock, because we have to look at the impact it could have on the town centre."

The Mayor of Darlington, Councillor Isobel Hartley, fears it could have an effect on trade in the town centre.

"I also fear it might have a detrimental effect on the town centre, especially when those traders have worked so hard to make the centre so attractive," she said.

A Safeway spokesman restated the company's claim that the plan would create up to 300 jobs.