New West Bromwich retail park making progress

These pictures show the good progress of the latest mammoth development by supermarket giant Tesco in West Bromwich.

The huge New Square leisure scheme sits just minutes from the town centre of West Bromwich and will be anchored by a 139,000sq ft Tesco Extra store.

And work to erect the structures of what will become an iconic part of the town's landscape is quickly taking shape as these latest pictures show.

The scheme is among a clutch being developed in the region by the company.

In Wolverhampton a 97,000 sq ft Tesco Extra costing £60m is due to start in November with land preparation under way. That store on the site of the former Royal Hospital in All Saints is expected to create around 600 new jobs and will open in 2014.

The retailer is also building an 80,000 sq ft site at the Victoria Shopping Park, in Hednesford, which will create 300 jobs, while work has also started on another store in Rugeley which will create 250 jobs and is due to open in September next year.

At New Square steel structures are changing the town centre skyline with the framework for the massive development taking shape.

The major development by Spenhill, the regeneration arm of Tesco, will open in the town next spring.

Visitors to the iconic pink and black coloured arts centre The Public, in New Street, can gets a bird's eye view of the work and the scale of the vast site which will transform the town centre.

Workmen are also laying new pedestrianised areas around the site, while much of the building site remains vacant in preparation for the next phases of work to begin.

A number of big name retailers have already signed up for the New Square scheme. Primark, Next, JD Sports, Bank and Arcadia have already signed up to the scheme as well as Nandos, Prezzo, Deichmann, Harvester restaurant and Phones 4 U. Along with an Odeon cinema and restaurants.

Vinci Construction UK is the main contractor for the project expected to create around 2,000 new jobs in West Bromwich.