The Bradley Stoke Journal

One of the UK’s largest pension funds has acquired a 50% share in the Willow Brook Centre, Bradley Stoke’s new town centre currently under construction at Savages Wood Road. Supermarket group Tesco has announced that it has agreed an £80 million joint venture with the massive BP Pension Fund, whose assets were recently valued at £14.7 billion.

The fund, which has 12,000 active members, is one of the few in the country that remains open to new members and has assets which exceed its liabilities by 35%. In fact it is so well over-funded that the BP company is not currently making contributions into the fund.

The joint venture, which enables Tesco to release funding for other development projects elsewhere, is reported to generate a yield of 5.35% for the fund.

Tesco’s press release claims that the deal “highlights the investment that Tesco brings and attracts, even in the in the present [economic] climate.”

The campaign to find staff for Bradley Stoke’s new Tesco Extra store has stepped up a gear with the opening of a dedicated recruitment centre on the Aztec West Business Park.

According to information on the Tesco Careers website, the Bradley Stoke Tesco Recruitment Centre in the Rombourne Business Centre, 130 Aztec West [map] is now open and is scheduled to operate until 6th October. The telephone number of the centre is 01454 629623.

The same Aztec West office was recently used to recruit staff for the new Tesco Direct store that has now opened on the old B&Q site at Cribbs Causeway.

The new store in Bradley Stoke is scheduled to open in “late autumn”, in time for the peak Christmas trading period; the supermarket group is expected to announce a more precise opening date within the next few weeks.

Construction of the new store has been underway since January and progress is said to be “on schedule”. The exterior of the store is at an advanced state of completion and work is now focused on fitting out the interior. Elsewhere on the site, construction of a shopping mall (attached to the northern side of the new store) and town centre units (around a new “town square”) continues.

The new store is approximately two-and-a-half times the size of the existing Tesco store in Bradley Stoke and just 5% smaller than the Asda Wal-Mart store at Cribbs Causeway.

A separate campaign to recruit mangers for the new store has been running since June, and the closing date for these positions is now given as 21st July on the Tesco Careers website.

For the latest news on jobs available in Bradley Stoke’s new Willow Brook shopping centre, check out The Journal’s dedicated New Town Centre Jobs page.

A planning application for an astonishing 856 illuminated and non-illuminated signs in Bradley Stoke’s new town centre has been submitted to South Gloucestershire Council by Tesco Stores Ltd.

The schedule lists items ranging from large signage gantries to anti-ram bollards and “no smoking” signs.

Notable items are the signs for vehicle set down points (along the northern side of the mall), bus stops (on the edge of the town square) and taxi ranks (in front of the five non-food retail units).

Interestingly, the detailed plans show the “Brooks Centre” moniker on some of the signs, despite this having been scrapped in favour of the “Willow Brook Centre“, following a public competition to choose the name of the new town centre. The Planning Committee of Bradley Stoke Town Council, which kicked up a stink when Tesco seemed to be set on sticking with the earlier name, can however rest assured that the plans were drawn up before the naming competition had been judged.

One of the signs carries the message “Please do not take your trolley beyond this point; trolleys have been fitted with a locking device”. This would appear to confirm suggestions that Tesco intends to implement a system to prevent trolleys being taken off site, an issue that was raised at the local Stronger and Safer Community Group meeting on 10th June. A representative from Tesco is to be invited to attend the Group’s next meeting on 30th September in Bradley Stoke Community School to discuss issues relating to the new town centre development.

The application deadline for management positions at the Tesco Extra store currently under construction in Bradley Stoke’s new town centre has been extended to 11th July 2008.

When originally advertised, the closing date was listed as 19th June. This was later extended to 30th June, before being changed once more to the current deadline.

It is not known if the application deadline changes reflect any slippage in the construction timetable for the new store, which is scheduled to open in “late autumn [2008]”. The projected opening date for a dental practice to be located in the shopping mall attached to the new Tesco Extra store recently slipped from December 2008 to April 2009.

The Journal understands that applications for shopfloor positions at the new Tesco Extra store will open later this month.

Links:

• Advertisement for management positions at Tesco Extra, Bradley Stoke
• More new town centre stories in The Journal
• More new town centre information in The Journal

Photos of the new town centre construction work can be seen in our PicasaWeb Gallery.

The judging panel tasked with selecting a name for Bradley Stoke’s new town centre development has chosen “Willow Brook” as the best suggestion submitted in a public competition jointly organised by Bradley Stoke Town Council and Tesco.

The competition was held after a remarkable U-turn by Tesco, which had previously insisted on using the name “The Brooks Centre“, despite having previously promised the Town Council that residents of the town would be given a chance to choose the name in a public competition.

The winner has asked to remain anonymous and has donated the winnings to the Mayor’s Charity, the local branch of the National Association for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease (NACC). Tesco has also matched the sum so that the charity will benefit by a total of £100.

The entry-level personal computer that was also offered as part of the prize package will likewise go to the NACC.

The naming competition was open to all UK residents, not just those living in Bradley Stoke. Dan Bramwell, Tesco Public Affairs Consultant, has however assured The Journal that the mystery winner is a local resident.

Construction of the new town centre is now well under way and Tesco recently began advertising management positions available at the new Tesco Extra store that is scheduled to open in “late autumn [2008]”.

More information about Bradley Stoke’s new town centre development can be found elsewhere in The Journal:

• New Town Centre posts
• New Town Centre pages

Photos of the new town centre construction work can be seen in our PicasaWeb Gallery.

The steel framework for the first block of shop/restaurant/office units that will surround the town square in Bradley Stoke’s new town centre has been erected just weeks after The Journal reported that the first concrete had been poured for the foundations.

The block (pictured above and shown with a red outline in the plan below) has a distinctive tower at its western end, which will form one side of the main pedestrian gateway into the town square. A zebra crossing on the access road close to the new filling station will provide a link from the footpath/cycleway that joins the Three Brooks Roundabout with Manor Farm Crescent and The Hedgerows.

Planning conditions imposed by South Gloucestershire Council 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.

Progress on the town centre development is rumoured to be well ahead of schedule, with unofficial sources suggesting a possible opening date as early as the first week of October [2008].

Bradley Stoke is to gain its first dental practice, located on the upper floor of the town’s new shopping mall currently under construction in the new town centre development at Savages Wood Road.

Details of the proposed practice first came to light in the agenda for the Board Meeting of the South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust (PCT) on 30th April 2008. Under an item titled “Tender Process for the new Bradley Stoke Dental Practice”, the Board was recommended to:

• Agree to a national tender process in line with the PCT’s contestability framework.
• Agree to the proposal to enter into a temporary lease with Tesco Stores Limited to secure the facility in Bradley Stoke whilst the tender process is completed.
• Approve the outline project plan for managing the tender process.

The proposed timeline included :

• Invitation to tender published in the British Dental Journal by 12th May 2008.
• Contract to start 8th October 2008.
• Service to commence 15th December 2008.

The PCT duly confirmed that it had entered into a lease agreement with Tesco Stores in a statement made to The Journal on 9th May 2008:

The PCT is very pleased to confirm that the PCT Board have approved a lease agreement with Tesco for the siting of a dental surgery in the new shopping centre as part of the ongoing programme of development of quality services in the area.

However, when The Journal enquired as to the progress of the tender process on 12th June 2008, we were given the following statement by the PCT:

The PCT is commissioning a new dental service in Bradley Stoke with an anticipated opening date of April 2009. The site has been secured and will be a two surgery practice within the new Mall currently being developed as part of the Tesco development.

An advert [has been] placed in the British Dental Journal. The deadline [for expressions of interest] is 25th June.

The PCT did not indicate why the projected opening date has slipped from December 2008 to April 2009.

The town’s new two-storey shopping mall (pictured below - under construction) is attached to the new Tesco Extra store and is due to open in “late autumn [2008]” according to the latest available information released by Tesco.

More information about Bradley Stoke’s new town centre development can be found elsewhere in The Journal:

• New Town Centre posts
• New Town Centre pages

Photos of the new town centre construction work can be seen in our PicasaWeb Gallery.