The first concrete has been poured for the shop, restaurant and office units that will surround the town square feature in Bradley Stoke’s new town centre development. Concrete foundations (with steel studs projecting) can be seen in a recent shot (above) taken by The Journal’s photographer.
The western end of the shopping mall (directly behind the yellow crane in the photo), attached to the new Tesco Extra store currently under construction, will open onto the oval-shaped town square, which occupies a position between the (now demolished) old and new Tesco filling stations.
The square will be enclosed by three blocks of two storey “town square units”, each having shops or food outlets on the ground floor and offices on the upper floor. Planning conditions imposed by South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) require that the two blocks on the south side of the town square be complete before the main Tesco Extra store is allowed to open. The third block, on the north-western side and attached to five non-food retail units, must be completed within 12 months of the Tesco Extra store opening.
The latest information released by the supermarket group states that the Tesco Extra store is on schedule to open in “late autumn [2008]”.
A recently agreed variation in the planning conditions saw the number of ground floor units in the town square block nearest the Tesco Extra store increased from two to four. It is suspected that this is because the larger units were proving difficult to market. Three of the seven ground floor units in the town square blocks are required to be used for Class A3 (restaurants or cafes) or Class A4 (drinking establishments) purposes. This condition is understood to be intended to ensure the vitality of the town centre, particularly in the evenings. Information on the SGC website states that a further variation agreement would be needed to permit Class A5 (hot food takeaway) use of these units.
More information about Bradley Stoke’s new town centre development can be found elsewhere in The Journal:
Photos of the new town centre construction work can be seen in our PicasaWeb Gallery.
