The M&S located in the town centre and traded for 94 years before shutting and is now Kent’s biggest indoor market, Petticoat Lane Emporium.

M&S now looks to take over a former Homebase store in Park Farm Retail Park in Folkestone that shut last year, according to reports.

The town was earmarked for a new store last year, when the retail giant drew up a list of towns, cities and suburbs it hoped to bring a food branch to.

Planning documents have been submitted to the Folkestone and Hythe District Council. The documents show that M&S looks to divide the unit into two different stores. The second unit is proposed to be a Home Bargains.

M&S is set to be housed within a 2,323 square meters unit, while Home Bargains would measure 2,309 square meters.

The project looks to transform a “large vacant retail unit” back into a hub of activity, according to the application. Approval would see an M&S Foodhall in the seaside town.

The exterior of the building is set to undergo a major facelift as part of the proposal.

New clear glazed shopfronts would be installed as a “vast improvement to the existing façade”.

The revamp would see a “green tiled portal entrance” alongside “pearl white” cladding on the rundown sides of the building.

The outdoor garden centre, two-storey staff block, old entrance and exit lobbies and the water sprinkler tanks of the former Homebase are set to be demolished.

The proposal includes a car park expansion, with the addition of eight EV spaces, nine parent-and-child spaces and a new pedestrian walkway.

There is an existing Home Bargains store located next to the retail park, but not known if and how the proposal would affect this.

The council is expected to make decisions on the planning application by October 1.

Separately, M&S will close 14 in-store cafés in England and Scotland this summer.

The retailer announced earlier this year that this is part of a restructuring plan to “provide more product choice and improve the shopping experience”.