Budget supermarket chain Aldi has started work on the premises it plans to open in Bracknell this summer.

The German food store will open on the site left empty when Waitrose left in 2007.

The shop in Leppington, Birch Hill, left a huge space in the row of neighbourhood shops, sparking fears the area would become a “ghost town”.

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Aldi property director Richard Williams said: “The store is definitely going ahead and the consensus is that the shop should be open in summer 2009 but there is no confirmation on exactly when.”

Preparations to open the store started earlier this month.

Jo Legg, chairman of the Birch Hill Neighbourhood Action Group, said: “Now that the workers are there and we can see things happening it’s really good.

“If there wasn’t any action there we would still be nervous that they wouldn’t come.

“The area has looked like a ghost town, you almost expect to see the tumbleweed there lately.

“Hopefully this will bring people in and that will help the rest of the shops in the area too with the passing trade.”

Since Waitrose left for a bigger premises in Sandhurst, the empty Birch Hill site has become a target for vandals.

PC Michael Foot, neighbourhood specialist officer for Birch Hill, said: “The criminal damage on the building has died off – I think this is mainly down to people working there.

“When it was just left boarded up people were damaging it.”