The Bradley Stoke Journal

Shoe retailer Brantano has begun advertising shop assistant vacancies for its new store in Bradley Stoke, which The Journal understands will be sited in the new retail terrace at the Willow Brook Centre.

The company advertised management positions at the new store back in February. Now it is looking for part-time sales supervisors and part-time sales assistants via listings on the Jobcentre Plus website.

Animal superstore Pets at Home recently advertised for full-time and part-time team member positions at its “Bradley Stoke New Store”, which might also be located in the retail terrace.

Elsewhere in the Willow Brook Centre, fitting out of the new Ladbrokes betting shop is well advanced and a large “opening soon” banner has recently been erected in the Town Square.

The new Taylors Estate Agents office will open in the Town Square (between Greggs and KFC) on Monday 11th May, while Bradley Stoke’s first-ever NHS dental practice, run by Phoenix Dental, is set to open on Monday 18th May on the first floor of the main Willow Brook Centre building.

The full list of new tenants in phase 2 of the Willow Brook Centre is due to be revealed soon, after banners showing which units are “under offer” appeared last month. Four of those units are in the shopping mall, which also houses the giant Tesco Extra store.

Related Links:

• Bradley Stoke Jobs (The Journal)
• Willow Brook Centre Jobs (The Journal)

Bradley Stoke’s new town centre is a step closer to completion after hoardings around the site were removed this week.

The new ‘retail terrace’ of six large non-food outlets is now fully open to public view along with two smaller units on the north-western side of the Town Square, one of which is now decorated with the Ladbrokes logo.

The route of the new bus lane along the edge of the Town Square is now fully visible and a bus stop (with shelter) has been installed in the covered section just before the junction with the public access road.

Buses will enter the site via a barrier controlled slip road off Bradley Stoke Way and proceed along the side of the mall building before skirting the Town Square and then leaving the site with a left turn onto the public access road.

As predicted earlier this week, ‘under offer’ banners have appeared on various units around the site. In the retail terrace, two units (3 & 5) are shown as under offer, with a further four units (4, 6a, 6b and 10) in the mall.

The retail terrace assignments differ from information shown in the Alder King marketing brochure, where unit 2 is shown as being under offer to Brantano and unit 3 under offer to New Look, but it is unknown at this stage whether this means that Brantano has pulled out or just chosen another unit.

Of the units under offer in the mall, unit 4 is between Carphone Warehouse and O2, while units 6a and 6b (one of which is very small) are between the mall side entrance and O2. Unit 10 is the large one at the eastern end of the mall, which also has entrances from Bradley Stoke Way and the shoppers’ car park.

The Westworld mobility and lifestyle store shown in the marketing brochure as occupying Town Square unit 8 (next to Ladbrokes) is not one of those shown as being under offer.

The tenants of the ‘under offer’ units are expected to be officially named within the next two weeks.

Animal superstore Pets at Home could be among the names as the group has recently posted job advertisements for full-time and part-time positions at its “Bradley Stoke New Store”. There has also been speculation that a bike shop might take mall unit 10, which has been reconfigured since the initial opening of the Willow Brook Centre in October 2008.

See the latest Willow Brook photos on PicasaWeb: album; slideshow.

What do you think of the range of shops and services available at the Willow Brook Centre? Which stores would you like to see there? Are you disappointed that there aren’t more community services like a post office and council drop-in centre? Let us know using our comments facility.