New Tesco at Deepdale given green light to extend opening hours

The new Tesco superstore in Blackpool Road which replaced Morrisons Pic: Blog Preston

A new Tesco store in Preston has been given the green light to extend its opening hours, just two months after it launched.

The retailer moved into what was previously the Morrison’s supermarket on Deepdale Retail Park after its rival vacated the premises in September last year. It began operating on November 23, after weeks of work to convert and upgrade the store.

Preston City Council’s planning committee has now approved a bid for the Blackpool Road outlet to open an hour longer at either end of the day – and for its petrol station to become a 24-hour facility.

The decision means the main shop will soon be open from 6am until 11pm, Monday to Saturday, as opposed to 7am to 10pm at the moment. Its Sunday opening hours will be unchanged at 10am to 6pm.

The petrol station is currently permitted to open between 6am and 11pm, but will now shift to round-the-clock operation, seven days a week. However, the attached kiosk will stick to the present opening hours, meaning customers wanting to fill up between 11pm and 6am will have to use the ‘pay at pump’ option.

Roddy MacLeod, from Redline Planning Services – the agent for Tesco’s application – told the committee the store had been “trading well” since it opened in the run-up to Christmas.

He said the change – achieved by varying a condition attached to the original planning permission for the store, granted in 2012 – would “enhance accessibility” for customers, while allowing Tesco “to operate the store more efficiently over a longer period each day”

No public objections to the proposal were received by the city council and the authority’s planning officers concluded that it would not have an adverse impact on those households closest to the store.

The petrol station forecourt was considered to be located a sufficiently “significant distance” away from residential properties – between 100 and 135 metres to those on Thorn Street, Basil Street, Emerson Road and Browning Road – in order to ensure the introduction of overnight trading would not disturb the people living there.

Committee chair Javed Iqbal described the application as “very straightforward” – and his colleagues agreed, approving it unanimously after less than five minutes of deliberation.

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