Express & Star

New £65m Wolverhampton Tesco store will be ready by 2016

A long-awaited £65 million Tesco supermarket will open its doors in Wolverhampton in 2016 creating hundreds of new jobs, bosses confirmed today.

Published

The supermarket giant has reaffirmed its commitment to the project, which will revamp the Royal Hospital in the All Saints area of the city.

It follows months of uncertainty after workers downed tools in February prompting council bosses to descend on London for showdown talks.

Work will begin on the site next year, when the store had originally been due to open.

Tesco spokesman Adam Williams said: "We are very much looking forward to opening our store and regenerating the Royal Hospital site.

"The new store will open in early 2016, creating hundreds of jobs and providing a great shopping experience for the local community in Wolverhampton."

Councillor Bishan Dass, who represents Ettingshall, said the completion of the Tesco store would bring huge relief to residents.

He said: "There has been a lot of anger from residents over the delays. They want to see it up and ready, like we all do, it doesn't look good for the city because regeneration work is taking place on a main artery into the city centre and it's not finished.

"Should Tesco follow through with their promises and it be completed in 2016 it will be a huge relief to the residents.

"Wolverhampton City Council, councillors, residents will do all they can do make sure that this development goes through and we will support Tesco in any way we can."

The news work had come to halt so a review could be carried out earlier this year, was described as 'deeply concerning' by Wolverhampton South East MP Pat McFadden. Once built the 97,000 sq ft store - first mooted around a decade ago - will eventually create 500 jobs.

Tesco's decision to regenerate the former Royal Hospital followed a legal wrangle with rival Sainsbury's lasting more than 10 years and dubbed the city 'supermarket wars'.

Both firms wanted to open on a site in Raglan Street. But Sainsbury's were victorious and its store was launched last month.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.