The Bradley Stoke Journal

The Willow Brook Centre (WBC) has announced that Bradley Stoke’s new Boots store will open on Wednesday 9th February.

The store will stock a wide range of health and beauty products and provide a full prescription dispensing service through its ‘Midnight Pharmacy’, which will remain open until midnight Monday to Saturday and 4pm on Sunday.

A promotional leaflet [PDF, 1.2MB], downloadable from the WBC website, includes an opening offer voucher giving £5 off when spending £25 at the new store until Wednesday 23rd February.

Jobs at the new store have been advertised on the www.boots.jobs website since December last year.  The site is currently showing a single vacancy for a Team Manager.

Adverts for vacancies at the new Boots store and regional office in Bradley Stoke have begun appearing on the Boots jobs website.

A press release put out by the Willow Brook Centre in August stated there would be at least 30 jobs at the new store, while a planning application seeking to install a mezzanine floor in the unit suggested that the regional office would employ a further 15 people.

The www.boots.jobs website is currently showing adverts for a Qualified Dispenser and a Team Manager.

To find the jobs, search for all jobs within one mile of postcode BS32 8EF. To be alerted of new jobs as they become available, sign up for email alerts by entering your email address in the form at the bottom of the search results page.

A Pharmacist position at the new store is also being advertised on a specialist recruitment website.

The store will open in “February 2011″, according to the job details shown on the Boots site.

Related link: Jobs in Bradley Stoke (The Journal)

Bradley Stoke could soon have no less than three late-night, seven-days-a-week, pharmacies after a rush of planning and licensing applications in the last couple of months.

Boots, due to open soon at the Willow Brook Centre, became the first to reveal its hand when it submitted a planning application that included references to a “midnight pharmacy” at its new store.

Bradley Stoke Surgery then entered the race when it submitted a planning application to change the use of part of its newly-extended premises from “clinical space” to “a 100-hour opening pharmacy” and The Journal has since learned that a third licensing application for a 100-hour pharmacy in the area is being processed by the local health authority.

Following a part-liberalisation of licensing rules in 2005,  a pharmacy becomes exempt from having to prove that it is “necessary and expedient” if it opens for more than 100 hours a week.

When asked about the possible opening of new pharmacies in the town, NHS South Gloucestershire told The Journal:

The Boots pharmacy at Willow Brook has been approved as a 100-hour pharmacy. There are two further applications for 100- hour pharmacies pending under the exempt rules in the vicinity of Bradley Stoke Surgery.

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The management of Bradley Stoke’s Willow Brook shopping centre have confirmed that they are in “final discussions” with Boots, the UK’s leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer.

Speculation that Boots would be opening soon in Bradley Stoke heightened when a planning application in the company’s name was submitted to South Gloucestershire Council last week.

The planning  application concerns unit 1 in the retail terrace, on the corner of the Town Square – between the new Simpson’s Fish and Chip shop and Brantano.

Permission is being sought because Boots wishes to add an extra “mezzanine” floor to the unit, in order to accommodate a regional office and extra storage space. The company also wishes to add an extra entrance, for direct access to the regional office.

Once extended, the store will offer 3,900 sq ft of retail space with a further 3,000 sq ft available for the regional office.

Read on for more details of the new Boots store in Bradley Stoke »