Around 350 jobs are set to be created at the new £55million Walsall town centre Tesco, figures have been revealed.

Work on the 1.6million hectare site is expected to start some time next year.

The store, a Tesco Extra, will replace the current Walsall College site in St Paul’s Street and will be one of the supermarket giant’s largest.

Council bosses had to agree the development could go ahead and it then had to be referred to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for final approval.

The plans would see Tesco vacate its current site in Old Square Shopping Centre and move to the old college site to create a store with a floorspace of 7,439 sq metres.

The 150 or so staff members who are already working there will keep their jobs if they also want to move site.

There is also expected to be 23 apartments, office space, a petrol filling station and parking for 858 vehicles.