CONTRACTORS have started work on the site of a £7 million new Wellington supermarket, the town’s fifth.

Aldi Stores Ltd won planning permission in March for a supermarket to be built on land in Chelston off the A38 relief road opposite the Westpark 26 business park.

The site is behind Blackdown Children’s Day Nursery and is bordered by the Chelston to M5 motorway link road.

Construction consultancy Soben said the Aldi store would take 32 weeks to build and would be ready for a ‘grand opening’ in December of this year.

It said the construction period was ‘inclusive of all snagging’.

A spokesperson said: “On completion of the works, the client takes one week to stock the store in readiness for trading.”

Contractors would be on site from 7.30 am to 6 pm on weekdays and 8 am to 1 pm on Saturdays, with Sunday and bank holiday working not anticipated.

Soben said although night-time working would not normally be undertaken, it was expected the store clean would take place at night outside of the approved hours, but it would not create any amenity issues.

It said it might not always be able to carry out concrete power floating within the approved hours of operation for noisy activities, which meant there was potential for complaints to be raised.

The spokesperson said: “We will always endeavour to carry out these noisy works during the working day and not while nearby residents are sleeping.

“If, however, there is no other option, we will always write to local residents informing them of the planned works and we will provide contact telephone numbers for them to call should they have any queries or problems.”

The firm anticipated construction traffic to the store site would use the motorway and link road via Chelston roundabout on the A38.