THERE are concerns about disruption in Tenbury linked to work on the new Tesco supermarket site.

Ken Pollock, who represents Tenbury on Worcestershire County Council, wants people to let him know about problems that he fears are set to continue into the New Year.

He also says that traffic bollards installed in the town as part of improvement works are experiencing a limited life expectancy.

“The consequent developments in the public areas associated with the new Tesco store have been causing a lot of disruption to traffic in Tenbury and it is regrettable that the arrangements have not been more helpful to the general public,” said Ken Pollock in a report to Tenbury Town Council.

“Western Power Distribution needed to replace a major power line but told me they were restricted as to their hours of working, extending the time taken, with consequent extra disruption. They said that Shropshire Council had imposed this limitation, which may be repeated in the New Year when the rest of the work will be undertaken."

Ken Pollock has said that he hopes that work on the second phase of improvements to Tenbury town centre will be less disruptive.

Some of the work had been delayed in a bid to limit any impact upon trade in Tenbury in the run –up to Christmas.

“I hope the Public Realm work will prove less disruptive after the busy Christmas period,” added Ken Pollock.

“While Tesco will use their own contractor, they will be working to a specification agreed with the county council officers, so that the quality of the work should be equivalent to that undertaken during phase one of the improvements.”

“Transport Regulation Orders covering the changes to parking and the bus stop will start the required period of consultation with the police and the public in the near future.”

It had originally been hoped that the improvements to Tenbury town centre would have been done as a single project.

However, this was not possible as the second phase could not be undertaken because funding from Tesco did not become available until the supermarket chain began work on the store on the former cattle market site.

The first phase of the Tenbury town centre improvements was undertaken in 2015 but suffered a number of setbacks and problems.

These included running out of materials and complaints from traders in the town about access problems that were blamed for a loss of business.

In a bid to limit disruption come of the work was carried out at night but this resulted in complaints from people living in the town centre because of noise and disturbance from bright lights.

Ken Pollock wants to make sure that the second phase of the work is not subject to the same problems.

“I would be very grateful for any comments or concerns from residents and visitors during the work, to seek to ensure it is implemented as quickly and smoothly as possible,” he added.