Tesco put on hold plans to carry out regeneration of Linwood

Published on Saturday 16 January 2010 00:54

TESCO last night sparked outrage as it put on hold much-vaunted plans to redevelop an entire Scottish town.

The shopping precinct in Linwood remains derelict

The supermarket giant yesterday admitted an indefinite delay to what it called its "flagship regeneration" of the crumbling centre of Linwood, Renfrewshire.

It did so almost exactly three years after generating a blaze of publicity by announcing an ambitious scheme to turn Linwood's now-derelict shopping precinct into Scotland's first real "Tesco Town", complete with new library, community hall and health centre, all paid for by the retailer.

Tesco said its redevelopment had been delayed by the discovery of four Victorian corpses in a long-forgotten family vault under the concrete central plaza. It would have to halt the redevelopment, it said, to re-inter the remains.

However, the company's claim was immediately contradicted. Asked about the graves, Bob Darracott, head of planning and transport at Renfrewshire Council, said: "We see no reason why Tesco could not move on site, even though they have this particular problem."

Tesco has come under pressure in recent weeks to explain why, a year after it won planning permission to regenerate Linwood, it has still not started work.

The Scotsman can reveal that Tesco's ruling board has still to give final approval for the development. Tesco also has yet to finalise arrangements for new roads with the local authority.

Local MSP Wendy Alexander yesterday accused the company of simply "dragging its feet".

Tesco, through its website, www.lovelinwood.com, was yesterday still telling the town's residents that the project was on track.

Ms Alexander said: "I think the discovery of these remains, however unfortunate, has become a convenient excuse for Tesco. With their website for Linwood months out of date and the people of the town uninformed, this is beginning to look like a story of a major corporation marching a hard-pressed community up to the top of the hill and then abandoning them there."

Linwood residents cheered Tesco executives in February 2007 when they announced they would revamp the town's centre, which the company now owns. Tesco was expected to provide 5 million for new public-sector amenities.

Tom Burke, a former Royal Marine and military contractor who runs local website and newsletter Linwood Sucks, said: "I realised how bad it was when I came back from three years in Iraq and it hit me that Linwood looks worse than some of the places I had seen there. People are now just completely cynical."

Frances Reid, 66, said: "Tesco Town? More like a ghost town."

Jennifer Duncan, Tesco's corporate affairs manager in Scotland, yesterday insisted that the supermarket company still wanted to rebuild Linwood.

She said she could not say when development work would begin. Tesco, she said, must now apply to a court to have the bodies found under the shopping centre reinterred. The company hired genealogists to find the descendants of those buried and is now, Ms Duncan said, proceeding in line with their wishes.

Ms Duncan added: "We are still committed fully to delivering the Linwood redevelopment, as it will be a flagship regeneration project for us in the UK, but for the time being our commitment must be to the family and to delivering their wishes."

Tesco has said its proposed developments in Linwood and nearby Wallneuk in Paisley will create more than 1,000 jobs, half of which will go to locals who have been unemployed for more than six months.