Tesco Express in Broad Street is closing but Budgens will replace it as Aldi starts on new March store

A town centre mini-supermarket is set to close on Friday – but it will only be shut for a matter of weeks.

Tesco Express is closing in Broad Street, March at the end of this week.

It is understood all the current store’s staff have been made redundant or have chosen to take redundancy as a result of the move.

The store, which is home to the town’s main Post Office, will be refurbished and then re-open as a Budgens later this month.

Budgens is part of Tesco PLC franchise.

A spokesperson for Budgens said: “We are delighted to be welcoming a brand new Budgens store to March, Cambridgeshire in the coming weeks.”

While a Tesco spokesperson explained staff had been offered the choice of redundancy or to transfer to Budgens and there would be no compulsory redundancies, but a post on Facebook suggested all the staff had opted to go.

Tesco announced the store’s closure last year and have since sold it to SAMY Ltd.

Meanwhile, supermarket budget chain Aldi is celebrating as work gets underway on its much-anticipated March store.

Aldi was granted planning permission to build a store on a site off Hostmoor Avenue last summer.

However, they had to fight off a judicial review as a result of that decision by Fenland planners.

That has now happened with the company’s agents Planning Potential announcing its success in defending against the judicial review brought by Tesco – which is located just metres away from the proposed new Aldi.

Tesco objected to the plans citing concerns over traffic impact, road safety, and also the safety of pedestrians.

The legal challenge was mounted earlier this year and at the time a Fenland District Council spokesperson said: “There is no third party right of appeal so Tesco cannot appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. They have, however, indicated that they will be submitting a legal challenge to the decision to grant permission that will be a matter to be determined through the courts."

When planning permission was granted the value-chain pledged to either provide its own traffic management scheme to improve safety at the junction of Hostmoor Avenue and the A141 or provide a cash contribution towards the March Area Transport Strategy to provide a scheme as part of its planning application commitment.

Aldi plans to open the store in the early part of next year. It will create up to 40 jobs and is part of a multi-million-pound investment in this area, which also includes upgrades to the Huntingdon branch.