'Keep M&S in town': Your views on City Fields plans
Wakefield residents have been airing their views as building work is set to start at the long awaited City Fields district centre.
The Express reported on Thursday (Sept 3) that Wakefield Council welcomed Aldi's plan to start construction work at the City Fields site later this year.
The new store set to create up to 40 new jobs when it opens next year.
In January this year Marks & Spencer revealed plans to leave its store in Wakefield city centre and open a new food hall at City Fields.
Last week Marks and Spencer said it had "no update to share" when the Express asked how plans were progressing for the new City Fields store.
And there is no update on previously proposed medical services at the stalled City Fields district centre site.
Commenting on the story on the Wakefield Express Facebook page Deborah Smith wrote: "Keep M&S in town!"
Sue MH wrote: "Why can't we have local independents? I for one am bored with the current offering."
Alan Clark wrote: "Theres an aldi less than a mile away at snow hill."
Martin Lowrie wrote: "This shell of a building has been standing for quite sometime now and does not seem to advancing anytime soon."
Tina Durham wrote: "Good, looking forward to Aldi as the one at Snowhill is terrible for parking."
The Express reported in September 2025 that construction work looked set to resume on the long awaited City Fields district centre to deliver shops, medical services and leisure facilities.
Residents in Wakefield’s City Fields were given assurances more than six years ago that a new district centre would be built.
Planning permission was granted in February 2020 for the development of a 110,000sq ft site off Neil Fox Way.
In April 2022, De Veer Estates announced that work had begun to transform the land but little progress on construction of the new business premises has been made.
Work looked set to resume in September 2024 after local authority planners gave the go-ahead for a previously approved planning application to be amended and updated.
The application, by Cityfields (Wakefield) Limited, sought permission for “the construction of a mixed-use district centre with associated access, car parking, landscaping and infrastructure work.”
Granting permission continued to allow the site to be used for retail premises, food outlets, medical services, nursery facilities, offices, a pub, restaurant and a drive-thru coffee unit.
A document submitted by the company said at the time: “Planning permission for the District Centre was originally granted in February 2020 and development commenced in May 2022, but was quickly aborted when the contractor went into administration."
Aldi is also set to create a new store at Cathedral Retail Park on the site previously occupied by Argos, Brantano, Carpetright and Office Outlet.
Construction work on that store is also due to start this year
The scheme involves demolishing one of the units to create more car parking and merging and refurbishing two others to create the new supermarket.
The company has also submitted a planning application to build a new store at Royds Mill, Ossett.
And Lidl is preparing a planning application for a new store on land off Dewsbury Road.
Lidl want to build the new store as part of a mixed use development on land opposite the Broadway entrance to Dewsbury Road.
A new junction would be created on Dewsbury Road to access the site.
Lidl said the scheme would create 40 new full and part time jobs at the Lidl store and between 105 and 435 jobs associated with proposed drive thru units and employment/commercial units.
Lidl has launched a public consultation on the scheme as it seeks residents' views before submitting a planning application to Wakefield Council.