Marks & Spencer is ready to make a “substantial investment in Farnham” with plans for a “brand defining” foodhall being served up to planners.

Further details about plans to open an M&S Foodhall at Farnham Retail Park have been revealed as the firm’s planning application to Waverley Borough Council has gone live.

The plans include the conversion and sub division of the former Homebase into two units with a 1,700 square metre foodhall occupying the largest.

The smaller unit will be sub-let with restrictions on what can be sold while the plans also include new entrances and extensive glazing to make a more “open and animated” front façade.

The store will offer 6,600 lines if everything goes to plan with features including specialist counters, full frozen and bakery ranges and a mixture of tills.

“With no existing presence in Farnham, M&S are excited to be bringing forward the proposals for a new brand-defining M&S Foodhall,” reads their statement.

“It will deliver the best of M&S in a state-of-the-art retail experience.

“The new Foodhall will deliver the soul of a fresh market, with the mind of a supermarket and will include the fill your own range and the famous 360-degree cheese barge.”

Planning documents reveal the retailer assessed a host of town centre sites before snapping up the former Homebase unit ahead of its March 1 closure.

Rejected sites included Woolmead, all the main town centre car parks, Farnham Delivery Office, 35-42 East Street and Brightwells Yard.

Curiously, the planning statement by Iceni Projects Ltd on behalf of M&S glosses over the retailer’s history with the development, and says no units on the site are big enough for a would-be store.

For more details or to make a comment on the application, visit https://shorturl.at/v9ELS