Sainsbury's supermarket

The opening of the Sainsbury's supermarket in Exeter Street on Friday 13th August 1999 was the biggest single retail development in the history of Bourne and was appropriately accompanied by a jazz band that played outside all day to celebrate the occasion. It was also the most controversial because it not only involved the demolition of several houses and business premises but also the re-alignment of the road system amid protests that the work was pushed through by the local authorities with undue haste and without sufficient public consultation to appease the developers.

The store was built on a site previously occupied by Nursery Supplies (Bourne) Ltd that moved to a new out of town location at the corner of the A151 Spalding Road and Meadow Drove in January 1999. The building covered 15,000 sq feet and provided 150 new and part time jobs. The development also included an adjoining car park for 170 cars and it was the amount of traffic to and from the supermarket that caused so much concern in the planning stage because the store was on the edge of a residential area.

The number of cars using Exeter Street had already increased following the recent opening of the Hereward Medical Centre in December 1998 and vehicles parked at the kerbside were causing congestion, especially at busy periods, but the problem was solved by widening the road at this point, installing new pedestrian crossings outside the store and mini-roundabouts to speed up traffic flows at each end of Exeter Street, at the junctions with both West Street and North Street.

There is no doubt that the building has enhanced the street scene at this point because it is well designed and constructed in red brick, a material that blends with the earlier properties in Bourne, but there were complaints that the new store would take trade from the two existing supermarkets, Budgens in the town centre and Rainbow in Manning Road, which proved to be an accurate forecast because Budgens eventually closed in April 2008.

In October 2003, Sainsbury's completed a major extension programme at their store which was almost doubled in size at a cost of £5 million and with the creation of 75 new full and part time jobs. Additional car parking spaces were also provided together with an in-store coffee shop.

In the following years, Sainsbury's have made several successful applications to South Kesteven District Council to increase the time allowed for deliveries of goods which were laid down in the original planning permission although there have been repeated complaints from residents living nearby about the noise from unloading activities early in the morning which have been repeatedly overruled. In July 2010, the company was granted planning permission to extend the Exeter Street store with the creation of 50 new jobs. The work involved adding a new first floor at the north eastern edge of the present building and improvements to other areas to maximise capacity and to create an additional 15 car parking spaces but SKDC which considered the planning application refused to allow an increase in the number of deliveries.

In February 2011, the store closed for a week to enable improvements to be made to the interior layout with the installation of a new checkout system, shelving, and the introduction of a wider range of goods on sale including more clothing and electrical items. A new bakery, hot food counter and pizza bar were added and improvements were also made to the customer cafe, toilets and cash machine. The car park surface was also re-laid. The work was carried out shortly before the opening of a new Tesco supermarket in South Road, Bourne, and was given a champagne re-opening on Tuesday 15th February attended by the Mayor of Bourne, Councillor Pet Moisey.

REVISED IN FEBRUARY 2011

See also

Supermarkets are essential     Car parking in Sainsbury's