Larger Tesco given go ahead - at a price

EXPANSION plans that would increase the size of Tesco on Salterton Road by 40 per cent have been rubberstamped – but the super Market giant must first cough up �45,000 to help regenerate Exmouth.

EXPANSION plans that would increase the size of Tesco on Salterton Road by 40 per cent have been rubberstamped – but the super Market giant must first cough up �45,000 to help regenerate Exmouth.

Now the supermarket giant is hoping have an expanded store, complete with up to 135 new jobs, a new filling station, a mezzanine caf�, new toilets, a recycling centre and a larger car park, up and running by Christmas next year.

The initial plans called for the demolition of nearby Redgate House and Glenorchy Church.

Initially United Reformed Church Southwest was minded to allow the corporation to build them a new church.

However, following the URC’s decision to instead take the cash, supermarket architects tweaked the bid and altered the front of the store slightly.

The district council’s planning committee gave the scheme the green light with little debate – but planning officer Ed Freeman stressed that the up-front payment of �45,000 towards town centre management and regeneration remained a key condition.

Cllr Geoff Chamberlain said the changes to the site layout did not warrant them reconsidering the application in detail.

Everything, he said, had been done to accommodate things and the Glenorchy Church would not be sorely missed as it had not been well supported.

The money the church would receive from Tesco, he said, would go towards improving churches elsewhere in the town, and was to be welcomed.

He added: “It will also clear up the untidiness down there with the scruffy hedges.”