Take a peek: First images of how new Oldbury retail park will look

A row of modern retail units and with ample parking spaces will form the complex which is set to rival other centres in the Black Country.

Eleven shops – including a discount foodstore – will be built on the 12-acre site in Bromford Road if the proposal headed by the owners of Grand Central and the Bullring gets the go-ahead.

Although it will be built in the heart of Oldbury, behind the Sandwell Council offices near Oldbury Ringway, it has the style of a modern out-of-town complex, such as Wolverhampton's Bentley Bridge Retail Park.

The long overdue arrival of concrete plans has been met with excitement in the town. A retail park has long been mooted in Oldbury - plans were first revealed as far back as the last century - but suggestions it could be resurrected over the years have been met with scepticism, such has been the number of false dawns.

The site has long been left empty but, being a short distance from Sandwell and Dudley train station, retail giant Hammerson has seen an opportunity.

A design and access statement submitted as part of the plans states: "The site, now vacant, was previously the home of Hunt Brothers Griffin Foundry which was demolished in 2003 to make way for a larger retail and leisure development that didn't come to fruition.

"Smaller scale industrial units had occupied the northern end of the site since the 1950s."

Permission was initially granted for the shopping centre in November 2004.

In 2007, 2009 and 2011, Sandwell Council granted approval to amendments.

A £50 million scheme, covering a 34-acre site and creating 1,000 jobs, was given final approval in 2011 but the land has remained empty ever since.