Supermarket chain Sainsbury is making a fresh attempt to extend its store in Kidlington.

The store is one of the most profitable for its size in Oxfordshire and company bosses want to add to the range of products sold there.

The retail chain wants to increase the sales area by more than 41 per cent to 51,275sq ft to offer ranges similar to those at their store in Heyford Hill, Oxford.

Additional services are likely to include the Adam's children's clothing concession, a range of small electrical goods and a dry-cleaners.

Previous applications to extend the site on to the car park have been refused to prevent parking spaces from being lost.

In a new application submitted to Cherwell District Council, the warehouse area will be converted into sales area instead, with the loss of only eight parking spaces.

Matthew Strigen, a spokesman for Sainsbury's, said: "There had been issues with car parking raised by customers.

"We re-submitted a revised application, which meets all the highways requirements that have been stipulated by the council.

"It's a priority project so we hope to get planning permission in September and start building work as soon as possible after that."

Traders' representatives have called for the traffic to the store to be directed to High Street to prevent business being sucked from the village centre.

Kim Martin, manager of the Kidlington Centre, said: "If they are cutting down on their warehousing then they will have more heavy goods vehicles to the store, which will increase traffic.

"If they put concessions in then some other retailers, especially ones selling electrical goods, could be severely affected, but that could be compensated for if the council put up signs at the exits to the store letting people know that there's more to Kidlington than Sainsbury's."

Muriel Prestidge, parish council chairman at Gosford and Water Eaton, whose area includes the store, had no objections to the new application.

She said: "It looks as if most of the alterations are going to be to the inside of the building and we couldn't object to that.

"As long as there will not be long queues at certain times such as Christmas, then we're happy with it."