Work on £65m Wolverhampton supermarket to start later this year

Sainsbury's has been planning to build a £65 million new store on land in Raglan Street, just off the ring road for more than a decade.

After finally getting the go ahead bosses of the supermarket giant had planned to reveal when they would start work on the development by February – but that was put off as the programme of works for the scheme had not been completed.

Council bosses issued a desperate plea calling for work to get underway and residents said it 'couldn't start soon enough'.

Today though Sainsbury's spokeswoman Tess Randles said: "We want to reassure residents that we're committed to building our new store on Raglan Street.

"While some preparatory site works have taken place, we're still working to fit this important scheme into our wider property development programme and are very hopeful of being able to start on site later this year."

Once completed the 90,000 sq ft store will create 190 new jobs.

Part of the Sainsbury's redevelopment includes plans to transform the landmark Attwood building in Chapel Ash into 22 homes, offices and a cafe or restaurant.

Sainsbury's had spent more than a decade battling with Tesco over the right to build on the land.

The dispute went all the way to the Supreme Court and was only resolved when Tesco was told it could develop the separate former Royal Hospital site with a £60m store spanning 97,000 sq ft. Around 10 per cent of the land for the Sainsbury's store in Raglan Street was owned by Tesco but the company handed over its share of the site at the end of last year.

Sainsbury's has also recently overhauled its Wednesfield store with a 21,600sq ft extension. The firm has also taken over the former Daisy Fresh store in Compton to open a Sainsbury's Local. Earlier this year the Perton branch of the supermarket giant was also refurbished.

Sainsbury's also announced plans to open a new local store on the Compton Road on the site of a former pub earlier this year.