ABOUT 175 jobs will be created in Selby if Tesco’s plan to replace its store with a bigger one is approved.

Selby District Council’s planning committee is expected to give permission at a meeting tomorrow, a decision that would pave the way for the company to demolish its Portholme Road store and build another one in its place.

The new building would be 6,289 square metres in size – almost double the size of the existing one, which occupies 3,356 square metres.

Tesco says the shop would create about 175 extra full-time and part-time jobs. The application site accommodates the existing supermarket, light industrial buildings to the rear and an area of green space west of the Civic Centre.

Selby Civic Society claims the development would result in the loss of about 2,800 square metres of mature, green landscaped lawns alongside the Civic Centre. In an email to the authority, it said: “We have previously pointed out that this green space is a long-established amenity area that provides a pleasant extension to the James Street Recreation Ground on the other side of Portholme Road.”

The Methodist Church, in Portholme Road, said: “The church is extremely concerned about the effect of increased traffic and the consequent worsening situation for queuing traffic wishing to turn out of Portholme Crescent into Portholme Road and thus the ability of visitors to the church to exit our car park.” This is the latest development in the ongoing Selby store wars, which have seen Tesco and Morrisons both vie to expand their operations.

Four years ago, Dransfield Properties caused an uproar with a proposal to concrete over the 100-year-old James Street Recreation Ground to extend Morrisons.