Tesco gets go-ahead to move remains at new site

A SUPERMARKET giant has been given approval to exhume 19th-century human remains and reinter them in North Berwick.

A judge yesterday granted Tesco an order allowing them to open up a burial vault in Renfrewshire and to remove the corpses for cremation and reinterment at Whitekirk Churchyard, North Berwick, in East Lothian.

Lord Brodie said at the Court of Session in Edinburgh that he was satisfied that authority should be given.

The approval will allow the company to move ahead with plans to demolish a "virtually derelict" shopping centre to construct a new town centre, including a supermarket, community halls, a health centre and shops.

A small mausoleum had stood on the site which contained four members of the Speir family. Counsel for Tesco, Stephen Govier, said the proposal was to reinter the remains at the East Lothian churchyard where recent generations have been laid.