KINGSBRIDGE is finally getting the £9 million new Tesco superstore the town has been expecting for more than a decade.

But now that work has begun on the massive new store, the town has been left in two minds as to whether it really wants it after all.

Many people are delighted that they will have a major supermarket on their doorstep which could draw in shoppers from surrounding villages and help re-invigorate the town.

But others fear that the store will be cut off from the main town centre by a steep walkway — forming a disincentive for people to walk from the supermarket to the town shops in Fore Street.

Tesco bosses expect the new store to be open in February next year.

Meanwhile Kingsbridge mayor Philip Yates said: "It has been on the cards for a long time. The site has been earmarked for a supermarket for something like ten years or more, and it's finally coming to fruition.

"I know there are people in the town who have concerns about its impact on Fore Street and I am always doing my best to encourage people to come to the town and shop in Fore Street."

Tesco has begun clearing trees on the old SWEB site off Cookworthy Road and doing other demolition work ahead of the piling that will be necessary before the store building can go up.

The supermarket chain also has to build a new town car park on the site of an old electricity sub-station in Lower Union Lane to replace the parking lost in the store development.

A main bone of contention over the scheme is Tesco's refusal to include a power lift in its store designed to get shoppers from the store level to the upper car park area and the access to Fore Street. Instead the store is building a walkway of a slope and steps.

Mr Yates accepted that the town was in two minds over the store, and said: "It would have been nice to get the lift access, but it was probably always a step too far for Tesco."

The poplar trees which have had to come down were nearing the end of their lives anyway, South Hams Council tree experts explained, and planting of replacements will be carried out as part of the landscaping work following construction.

Stephen Munday, the district council's head of development management, said It was planned that more than 50 semi-mature trees of different species will be planted in several areas, including the supermarket's new car park and around the proposed pedestrian link.

He said: "While it is not part of the formal planning permission, Tesco has assured the council that a qualified ecologist has been employed to supervise all vegetation and tree clearance on the site to avoid disturbance to any nesting birds."