Excitement builds as store goes up

Part of the steel frame of the new £12 million supermarket has been erected in the past week, after several weeks of ground works at the High Street site.

The 51,122 sq ft store will have 278 car parking spaces, and will create 290 jobs. A piece of public art has even been commissioned for the development, from sculptor Robert Erskine.

A sign on the perimeter fence for the site says Morrisons is currently recruiting for managers for the store, and it understood that recruitment for remaining positions will be carried out by Job Centre Plus.

Sarah Gelsthorp from Houghton Regis Town Council said residents were excited about the new store, expected to open in August.

She said: “We have worked with the developers from the outset, and the site is now being developed by Kier, who we are going to be contacting to get a schedule of the work.

“It is creating quite a bit of excitement.”

Asked whether traders in the nearby Bedford Square precinct were worried about the prospect of a new superstore on their doorstep, she said: “The new store will offer some different things that perhaps Bedford Square hasn’t got.

“But the new store now faces a different direction to how it was originally intended, so it creates a direct link with Bedford Square.”