A PUBLIC exhibition about a supermarket’s plans for a York site has been held.

Sainsbury’s launched the event yesterday to tell local residents about how plans to convert the current B&Q store into a supermarket will work.

The exhibition was open yesterday from 11am to 7pm at St Thomas’s Church, Osbaldwick, and continues today from 11am until 4pm.

On Thursday, an invitation-only stakeholders’ event gave immediate neighbours a chance to preview the plans.

Sainsbury’s staff said they had seen a lot of interest in their plans, with more than 100 people visiting their exhibition in the first few hours of the event yesterday, from Osbaldwick and the wider area.

The supermarket wants to turn the existing building into a new Sainsbury’s foodstore with about 60,000 sq ft of sales space, around 490 car parking spaces, cash machines, a customer café, and two electric vehicle charging bays.

Residents visiting the exhibition have mixed views on the scheme, with some welcoming the supermarket but others concerned about the effect if could have on traffic nearby.

Brian Johnson, from Osbaldwick Lane, went to the exhibition on Friday afternoon.

He said: “It would be good to have a big shop in the local area. We have to go to Monks Cross at the moment, or to Morrison’s.

“The new store will be very good for parking.

“I am disabled, and they are doubling the amount of disabled parking spaces at the store.”

But Joy Smith, from Tranby Avenue, said she had concerns about increased traffic for Hull Road.

She said: “Hull Road does get very congested, but until the supermarket is there, we won’t know how bad it will get.”

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s said once the consultation responses had been considered they planned to submit a planning application for the site by the end of March.

The proposals include demolition of the garden centre and trade yard to make room for more car parking, installing glass panelling on the front of the building, and removing some of the orange signs on the store.