A VIDEO posted on Youtube shows the inside of Colchester's old Homebase store, which is soon set to become a Lidl.

Posted by Youtube channel Exploring with Em & Stu, the video is a tour of the inside of the former retail store, which closed in 2018.

Those filming can be seen exploring the main retail floor, staff offices and facilities like the toilets, all of which are eerily empty.

Reference is made to antisocial behaviour inside the property such as starting fires and you can see graffiti on some of the doors.

Released in February this year, the video has more than 1,200 views on Youtube.

You can watch the video here:

Exploring with Em & Stu has more than 3,000 subscribers on Youtube and various videos exploring sites across Essex.

Colchester's old Homebase store closed in 2018 after an offer was accepted by a then unknown third party.

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This turned out to be Lidl who have been working on plans to open their third store in the town ever since.

Planning permission for the site was initially granted in 2019, despite objections from rivals Asda and Tesco.

However last year Lidl submitted fresh proposals for a slightly larger retail store, with separate units for Costa and Subway on site.

These were granted earlier this year.

A number of conditions were put in place including on things like the opening hours of the site and improvements to bus stops in the area.

The Lidl store will be open 8am to 10pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sundays whilst the other units can operate between 6am and 11pm each day of the week.

Work started to furnish the inside of the long-awaited supermarket in May.

The final works at the store are expected to take six months with a view to opening this winter.

Up to 40 jobs are expected to be created by the new store with Lidl starting to advertise jobs for the new site.

Whilst laying empty the former Homebase unit was hit by a fire in March this year.