Delay over new Shrewsbury Waitrose store
Shrewsbury's new Waitrose supermarket has been delayed due to the difficult trading climate.
Work is yet to start on the 30,000 sq ft superstore planned for the former Percy Thrower's Garden Centre site in Oteley Road, Shrewsbury.
Bosses at the nationwide chain were today unable to say when developers would move on to the site.
A spokesman put the latest delay down to "the well documented market conditions across the supermarket sector".
Planning permission for the store – which formed part of a £40 million shopping development including a new garden centre and a parade of seven shops – was granted in July 2012, and it had been hoped the new supermarket would create dozens of jobs.
At the time of the planning permission being granted Waitrose bosses said they hoped the store would open by the end of 2014.
But in January 2014, a Waitrose spokesman said that work on the site would not start until 2015 and the store would open at the end of the year.
A Waitrose spokesman said: "We are looking forward to opening alongside the new look Percy Thrower's Garden Centre as soon as we can. However we are having to review the timetable in light of the well documented market conditions across the supermarket sector.
"We understand the delay is causing some disappointment, but our aim is still to start work at the earliest opportunity and deliver a quality food store, which will provide the very latest Waitrose offer as well as creating new jobs for local people."
In November it was revealed that German supermarket chain Lidl plans to bring a new foodstore to the town on land next to Shrewsbury Town's Greenhous Meadow. The move would create between 25 and 40 jobs.
Planning permission has also been granted for a foodstore behind the BP garage on Hereford Road, close to Meole Brace roundabout.
There is already a Sainsbury's supermarket on nearby Meole Brace Retail Park.
In August a development that could see the creation of up to 2,000 jobs on a 35-acre commercial development site in Oteley Road was revealed. The commercial land is only one section of a 100-acre project which forms part of Shrewsbury South Sustainable Urban Extension and will include 550 homes, a community centre, a care home, a doctor's surgery and a pub.
Waitrose already has a small store in Shrewsbury town centre that opened in May 2011.
