Town should plan for arrival of superstore, says Tenbury Wells mayor

Officially, Tenbury Wells is still in the running for a new Tesco as some preliminary work has been carried out on the former cattle market site earmarked for it years ago.

However, Councillor Mark Willis, Mayor of Tenbury, said the work was "a far cry" from any serious preparations to build on the site, currently used by residents as a car park.

While Tesco made it clear earlier this year that the Tenbury Wells store was not among the 49 projects that it had decided to scrap, Councillor Willis said he had no faith that the company would not pull the plugat any time.

A Tesco supermarket was suggested for the market town on the Shropshire border in 2010 and was hoped it would create more than 100 jobs.

But there has been little movement on the scheme, with the project in limbo in recent years.

It is hoped to go ahead as Tesco has pledged to support the Tenbury Transport Trust to allow Tenbury Museum to relocate and put more money into flood defences along the River Teme.

Work carried out on site this spring has included the demolition of double garages behind Temeside House and the formation of a manhole.

Simon Peter, corporate affairs manager for Tesco, said: "There have been some remedial works on the site, to help bring it forward for development."

However, he could not confirm if and when work would be starting on the new store, although he promised

local politicians would be kept up-to-date.

Councillor Willis said Malvern Hills District Council had received a letter from Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis saying that the project was not among those being dropped.

"So at the moment they say they are still going to come to Tenbury, but there is still no date for work to begin," said Councillor Willis.

"But what's happened on site is just some demolition and drainage to satisfy the planning department at Malvern Hills, so that they retain planning permission."

He said permission for the store was due to lapse this autumn - three years after it was granted - hence the preliminary work to keep the option of building open.

But Tesco could "quite easily" announce at any time that it was withdrawing the project in another wave of cancelled store plans, he said.

"There are a lot of businesses and other people in the town who are in a position of anticipation over the new Tesco store," he said.

"It was going to be a major employer, but it is very difficult to plan ahead with such uncertainty."

He said remaining work on resurfacing the road at Teme Street relied on the store going ahead.

"The town is in a position where we have to plan for the future bearing in mind they may not come," he said.