A NEW supermarket and shopping mews development in Chipping Sodbury is gathering pace, the Gazette can reveal.

Waitrose has confirmed it will begin clearing the site around Barnhill Quarry, where a new supermarket is due to be built, as early as next month.

James Armstrong, property and development communications manager for Waitrose, told the Gazette: “Some initial works will commence in December including the vegetation clearance and site set up, but the significant start on the enabling works is going to be made in January 2013.

“The town centre car park will remain open in its entirety until after Christmas.”

The long-awaited arrival of the supermarket comes after developer Chelverton Deeley Freed won full planning permission to build a 21,000sw ft food store on Barnhill Quarry, along with 160 houses, in August.

The company also has permission to create a mews of four new retail units at the back of the former Lanes hardware store and a bridge over the River Frome linking the High Street with the supermarket.

It has now been revealed the shopping precinct, which is yet to be named, will also include a covered market area to be used for various events.

In another development, the Gazette can also reveal that the vacant hardware shop which was bought by Chelverton Deeley Freed is to be extensively refurbished and will reopen as a coffee shop shortly.

Cardiff-based Coffee#1 confirmed it is hoping to open in Chipping Sodbury in early January. But spokeswoman Holly Marjoram said there was a possibility the opening date could even be brought forward to before Christmas.

She added: “Coffee#1 opened its first store on Wood Street, Cardiff in 2001. We now have 26 coffee shops sprinkled across South Wales and South West England.

“We’ve picked up two BSA awards along the way and won the title Best UK Coffee Chain in the Cafe Society Awards) the past four years in a row.”

Mark Lloyd, chairman of Sodbury Chamber of Commerce, said: “This development is going to change the face of Chipping Sodbury forever.

“Lanes has been closed for four years and without this development no-one would have the sort of money it needed spending on it and the building would have just imploded.

“This will be the saviour of Chipping Sodbury in ensuring our future is bright.”