THERE will be major delays to a plan to create additional parking in Tenbury to counteract the arrival of a Tesco supermarket in the town.

A project to remove a recycling area from the swimming pool car park to create extra parking space has been the victim of a major hold up.

Councillor Ken Pollock, who represents Tenbury on Worcestershire County Council, says that he is frustrated by the delays to the plan.

The intention had been to free up space in time for the start of work on the new Tesco development on the old cattle market site.

But although there is still no date for Tesco contractors to move on the site and start work, the removal of the recycling facilities from the Palmers Meadow car park to the Business Park on Bromyard Road will, in any case, not happen any time soon.

A site for the new recycling centre has been identified on the business park adjacent to Elgar Foods but it can only happen after there is a public consultation.

“Tenbury Town Council requested that the site be moved last October,” said Coun Pollock.

The new disposal facility will not take food waste and will not be open every day of the week for materials like cardboard.

Coun Pollock said that the skips will be secure and open three days a week – Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

When the existing skips are moved from Palmers Meadow this will make available another 30 parking places that will be needed when the work on the Tesco development closes the unofficial parking area on the old cattle market site.

One of the reasons for the delay in the relocation is that there will need to be a formal planning application to Malvern Hills District Council and this is unlikely to be determined before July.

Tenbury Town Council had wanted the area to be cleared as soon as possible so that the additional spaces would be available before work starts.

The town council also has concerns about parking for different reasons on the grassed area at Palmers Meadow.

It has discovered that traditional May Fair will be coming a month early in 2014.

The traditional May Fair will be in town from Sunday April 6 for a week this year.

It will be held on The Burgage and this is causing concerns for Tenbury Town Council that have been made worse by the very wet start to the year.

Town councillor Jay de Costa said the situation could have been even worse because at one time it was envisaged that the May Fair would take place in March.

“In the past The Burgage has been used for parking and it is still very wet,” said Jay de Costa.

George Price, the mayor of Tenbury, said that the town council is being placed in a difficult situation because it would not want to be in a position to say that the fair could not come.

“The ground will have to be inspected beforehand to decide if it is firm enough,” he said.

“There has been access in the past when cars have got stuck and it was necessary to get four wheel drive vehicles to pull them out.”