Tesco moving in to Worthing town centre

The company confirmed it is moving into the former Yates's Wine Lodge premises, and will be employing between 25 and 30 staff '” all recruited locally.

A company spokeswoman confirmed the store would aim to follow Tesco's usual practice of selling alcohol, as well as the customary range of foodstuffs.

The announcement comes six months after the Herald predicted the company would move into the empty town centre shop.

Tesco town

This will be the seventh Tesco Express in the town, in addition to the main store at West Durrington.

And a planning application is expected soon for a new Tesco superstore to replace the present West Durrington outlet.

Tesco's move into Chapel Road will give a further competitive edge to town centre shopping.

It has already been announced that Morrisons will be moving into the present Co-op store east of Broadwater Bridge, while the Co-op will be taking over the Somerfield store in the Guildbourne Centre.

Credit crunch

And it has been announced during the past week that Waitrose, in High Street, is launching a lower-priced range of quality foods to help customers cope with the credit crunch fall-out.

There was a mixed reaction to the new Tesco Express from town centre manager Sharon Clarke.

Mrs Clarke, who is also on the committee of Worthing Town Centre Initiative, said: "We welcome the fact that it is filling the empty building, but we do have some concern for the independent businesses nearby, in the Guildbourne Centre and Portland Road in particular.

"We are concerned we are going to lose these independent traders, who are so important for Worthing."

Extra cars

Mrs Clarke continued that parking and traffic problems could be caused in Chapel Road, which was such an important bus and taxi route, by people parking temporarily to "pick something up" from Tesco.

"We want to keep traffic moving through the town, but we have to wait and see what happens," she added.

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