A SENIOR figure in Tesco this week confirmed that the company was still "very interested" in acquiring a site for a major store in Cinderford despite making no headway with a deal to buy the rugby ground.
"We are still as interested in Cinderford as we have been for the past four years," said Richard Anderson, who is managing Tesco's negotiations in the Forest area.
"It is true we have been in negotiations with the Rugby Club and we did not make as much progress with this as we would have liked.
"But we still have our eye on the town as a place for a major high quality store for all the same reasons we have stated in the past.
"We have not yet found the right site but we are still very, very interested."
Cinderford's Dockham Road rugby ground has been strongly favoured as a site for the new superstore but a club spokesman told the Review that no deal had been completed.
"There have been a lot of rumours that we had sold the ground but they are untrue," he said. "There have been inquiries but no money was mentioned at this stage."
Previous attempts by the store group to acquire land in or around Cinderford have come to nothing, with major stumbling blocks being car parking space in town and recent moves to stop stores being built on out-of-town greenfield land.
Meanwhile the grand opening for Tesco's new Lydney store have received a setback – it is now planned to open the store on Monday, September 3, and not Monday, August 20, as previously planned.
The unspecified delay also affected Tesco's plans to have Rugby union star Jason Robinson perform the opening ceremony – the season will by then be in full swing. However, as we went to press, it looked as if Jason could make it on the big day.
The new store and petrol station will have a bakery and hot chicken counter as well an extensive food and drinks range, with free car parking and reserved mother-and-baby places.
A host of activities are being planned for the opening including a family day.