The ambitious £80m mixed-use scheme has outline planning to give the town a multi screen cinema, major food store, hotel, restaurants, bars, shops, petrol station and additional free car parking.

It is hoped that work will begin on site by autumn 2014 and be completed by the end of 2016.

The council estimates the redevelopment project will cost £45m to build.

Further information is available from the Chest procurement portal.

Architect Broadway Malyan drew up the masterplan for the 8-acre site bounded by Weaver Navigation, Witton Street and Matalan and Sainsbury’s stores.

Northwich has been at the centre of Britain’s salt industry since Roman times but the legacy of unstable mines beneath the town centre prevented any significant growth in the past 30 years.

A £32m programme completed in 2007 stabilised the abandoned mines by replacing millions of litres of brine from the mines with a mixture of pulverised fuel ash and cement and clearing the way for development.