Tesco warning about £50m scheme

The store would be built on derelict land on the edge of the city

Tesco has warned a council a £50m scheme which was drawn up 12 years ago may be under threat because of delays.

The company told Stoke-on-Trent City Council it would not start building a store in early 2010 unless highways issues were sorted by Christmas.

The scheme, which the firm said would create 300 jobs, was drawn up in 1997 but planning permission was not agreed by the secretary of state until 2005.

The council said it was committed to the plan but wanted to get it "right".

Tesco said the new store, planned as a "gateway" to Stoke-on-Trent, would help regenerate the area but said it was frustrated by the delays.

After planning permission was granted for the site, it took another four years before compulsory purchase orders were approved in August this year.

Ring road

Tony Fletcher from the firm said: "I think you have to understand that there are many other authorities which we work with who are very keen to see things happen quickly.

"And obviously we go where the door is open for us. So if the door is difficult we have to say 'let's go where we are wanted now'."

The city council said it was committed to transforming the derelict site and was currently looking at details of the ring road.

"It is not a question of delay, it is a question of getting the detail right," a spokesman said.

The council added it also wanted building work to start in 2010.

Concerns over regeneration in the city were recently expressed in an Audit Commission report.

It found the economic gap between the city and the rest of the country was widening.