Tesco and Sainsbury’s were today named as contenders for a new £15 million supermarket in Wolverhampton – ending a decade of store wars in the city, the Express & Star can reveal today.

Both retailers are in talks about launching a flagship store at the Peel Centre in a move that would create between 350 and 500 jobs.

The 100,000 sq ft supermarket would be the biggest in Wolverhampton at almost double the size of the nearby Asda at Molineux.

The plan could mean an end to the 10-year battle to build a supermarket on wasteland in Raglan Street in Graiseley, off Ring Road St Mark’s, with one store building there and the other at the Peel Centre off Stafford Street.

Tesco, which owns a fraction of the site, is the city council’s preferred developer of Raglan Street, but Sainsbury’s is refusing to hand over its 86 per cent of the land to its rival and a two-day hearing at the Court of Appeal is due to start on July 22.

The whole of the Peel Centre’s land would be given up for the development, which will include 720 parking spaces and be open in 2012.

The four stores currently at the site – JJB, Focus DIY, Bensons Bed Centre and Harveys – would all be offered either financial packages to close down or help in relocating.

Roger Wheeldon, who is a senior development surveyor at the Peel Centre, said today: “We know all about the Raglan Street situation and are asking either Tesco or Sainsbury’s to bite the bullet and come here as an alternative.

“We need to solve this problem and are in talks with agents representing the two,” he added.