A NEW Tesco Express store is to open in Goodramgate, the firm’s third in York city centre in the past two years.

Tesco confirmed it hoped to open the store in autumn as part of a development by Town Centre Securities, in the Christian Marcus Direct (CMD) shop.

Planning permission was granted in August for the developer to make alterations to the shop front, and to build an extension at the back of the property.

John Hutchison, manager of Maynews on Goodramgate, said the supermarket was encroaching on the livelihoods of businesses in the city centre, especially on a pedestrianised street like Goodramgate.

He said: “It could put a business like ours out of business, especially being right opposite. It’s completely wrong. I think it will ruin York. They’re popping up all over the place like a rash.”

He said he was worried that Tesco wanted to open a Tesco Express on each corner of the city.

Deborah Hayeems, corporate affairs manager for Tesco, they had no specific plans for further Tesco Expresses in York at the moment. But she said the three already in the city centre did not preclude it from opening more as they were not about drawing people from miles around, but serving a close catchment area She said the shop would create 15 to 20 jobs.

“The two we have seem to be very popular in York and are trading well. The Tesco Express format is very much about convenience shop, not a huge big supermarket, a drop in and top-up shop,” she said.

She said they had chosen Goodramgate because it is a pedestrianised route in and out of the city centre and would target people on their lunchbreak or needing to do a quick shop on their way out of the city.

The planning application made no mention of Tesco’s interest in the refurbished shop and the planning decision was decided by council officers without going to a planning committee, because there had been no objections.