SHOP staff in Great Sutton have slammed the go-ahead for a new Tesco store.

Angry workers at Spar, Thelwall Road, claim they only found out The Sutton Way Hotel will open as a Tesco Express store through ‘word of mouth’.

Sales assistant Dawn Cameron fears it’s ‘inevitable’ the store will close once the supermarket giant opens opposite the Spar in the next couple of weeks.

She said: “We’re a community shop and look after the elderly, we do shopping for them if they’re ill, they just ring us up and we take food round for them; that’s definitely going to be missed, as well as the charity boxes we have here.

“I just find it so sad that we’ll probably have to close and the post office indefinitely with it.”

It has now been confirmed The Sutton Way Hotel will become a Tesco ‘within the next few months’.

The site, described as an ‘eyesore’, has been boarded up for years, and targeted by vandals.

Permission was granted earlier this year to the building’s owner, GRS Estates, to adapt the land, making way for a large delivery area, new car park and disabled access ramps.

Tesco wrote to councillors requesting a meeting for residents to express concerns, and neighbours were consulted about the plans.

But Spar worker  Dawn Cameron, who has worked there for 13 years, said she felt ‘discriminated’ against after not being consulted

She said: “We’d definitely have put objections in and I know we’d have had 100% support.

“What I am most sad about is losing  the post office at Spar  –  all the elderly people who use it every day won’t be able to get there.”

Jean Hughes, who has worked there for 18 years, said:  “I’m not saying I don’t want a Tesco, I understand it’ll create more jobs, but it will come at the cost of other people losing theirs.”

St Paul’s ward councillor Ben Powell said: “I think it’s incumbent on Tesco to consult local residents and businesses if they want to open a new store in the area and I’ll be making this point when I meet with them.

“I’ll seek to build a positive relationship with the local Tesco to ensure any concerns can be conveyed and encourage them to work with local community groups and charities for the benefit of the local community.”

Doug Wilson, Tesco’s corporate affairs manager, said:  “Our plans will bring the old Sutton Way building back into use, a building that has laid empty for a number of years.

“The new store will be a great asset to the area and will bring much needed local employment opportunities.”