Tesco's supermarket

The Tesco supermarket chain first showed an interest in Bourne during the late 20th century when they tried unsuccessfully to build a store on land adjoining the A15 to the south of the town but their application for planning permission in 1996 was turned down. Councillors decided that as the proposed supermarket was outside the recognised town centre, it would jeopardise the viability and vitality of existing shops in Bourne.

Ironically, the proposed site was part of 17 acres of land alongside the trunk road that was later planned as a £10 million business and commercial park but the project foundered through lack of support and the site was still lying idle in 2002.

By this time, Tesco had joined forces with the Esso petroleum company that had opened its new 24-hour service filling station on the site of Woolf's garage in North Street in 1994 and their joint proposal for a petrol station cum grocery store was subsequently accepted by district planners early in 2002. This was seen by many people as an entry into Bourne by the back door but in the event there were no objections.

There were also fears of increased dangers at this point, a double road junction with the main A15 that had already been improved because of public pressure with two mini roundabouts to take increased traffic flows from the new Sainsburys superstore that had opened in Exeter Street in the summer of 1999. 

But once again, the new development was agreed even though a grocery-petrol complex at this point was likely to create even more road traffic dangers than in the past. The pre-publicity for the project also suggested that the new grocery store would be an addition to the existing petrol filling station, which was barely seven years old, with only the loss of the car wash, but once work began, it became obvious that the entire site was to be cleared to make way for a completely new building. 

Contractors started pulling down the old petrol filling station in May 2002 and the developers promised that the new facility would be in business by August 9th of that year but roadworks outside delayed the opening until Monday 19th August and the new Esso/Tesco store and petrol station is pictured below during its first week of trading

See also   North Street     Sainsburys     Business & Industry

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