Tesco plan before council (From South Wales Argus)

Tesco plan before council

11:20am Thursday 3rd July 2008

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SUPERMARKET giants Tesco submitted plans to Caerphilly council for the superstore set to be built in Risca.

The proposed 80,000 sq ft Tesco Extra, is set to be built on the old foundry site in Newport Road.

This would be the fourth supermarket in the area along with Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl and the store would be 20,000 sq ft larger than the Tesco Extra in Cardiff Road, Newport.

A public exhibition was held in April, allowing members of the public to have a say on the development.

A spokesman for Tesco, Felix Gummer, said: "The majority of people said they were keen for this to happen and people reflected that they had to go away to shop elsewhere and they're generally excited about it."

At least 500 jobs are set to be created should plans go ahead.

Assistant manager at the Commercial Inn, Risca, Chris Norman, 21, said he had mixed feelings about the development: "Risca is quite run down, it's an old town and something like that has got to help because there's a lot of unemployment."

He added: "I've got lots of friends with shops like butchers and I feel sorry for them because they can't compete with Tesco prices. I'd say on the whole it will be a positive thing as long as the jobs go to local people."

Mr Gummer, added: "There are no large retailers near the high street, what we've found is nearly everyone is going out to do their main food shopping, we want to bring the shop to them."

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