Major new supermarket plan for city

Bosses at the Peel Centre, off Stafford Street, are in talks with an unnamed retailer to launch a new store.

It will have up to 100,000 sq ft of shopping space. There will also be 720 parking spaces, new trees, shrubs and landscaping.

At present, traders at the site include JJB Sports, Bensons Beds and Harveys furniture store. Four stores would have to be demolished to make way for the development.

It is not yet known which firms would be affected.

An outline planning application has just been submitted to Wolverhampton City Council by NJL Consulting, on behalf of the Peel Retail Centre.

The Asda store next to Molineux is 55,000 sq ft, meaning the new Stafford Street supermarket could potentially be almost double the size.

Gareth Finch, property planning manager for Peel Retail Centre, said today: "We have applied for 100,000 sq ft of floor space to give us flexibility if we want it to be that big, until we can confirm which supermarket would run it.

"Four buildings on the site would be demolished. We have easily got enough room for it."

The application states that public opinion is "very much in favour" of creating another another major supermarket within the city centre.

Councillor Paddy Bradley, cabinet member for regeneration, said: "We do need another big shopping centre in Wolverhampton.

"We tend to attract a lot of people to our city from areas like South Staffordshire and the more big supermarkets we can offer, the better.

"It would be a very welcome investment, even if we don't yet know which firm wants to run the supermarket."

The Peel Centre, built in 1987, used to be able to sell only furniture and so-called "bulky goods" like clothes.

But this year the rules were relaxed to allow it to expand.