A FORMER supermarket has been torn down to create extra parking spaces for its replacement superstore.

The old Morrisons supermarket in London Road, Hadleigh, has been demolished to create 167 new car parking spaces for shoppers visiting the superstore which opened next door.

The car park will have 375 spaces when it is complete.

This comes after Hadleigh was brought to a standstill as scores of drivers blocked nearby residential roads trying to access the new store following its official opening on January 25.

Jason Pawley, general manager, said: “The new store is proving popular with customers and we’re working as fast as we can to get the extra 167 spaces into use as quickly as possible.

“We’d like to thank everyone for their patience while we demolished the old store.”

Contractors took just seven weeks to take down the old building and will open part of the car park that will be left in its place to parents with children and disabled shoppers as soon as March 19.

The rest of the extra parking spaces will be opened in stages up until April 3, when all work is due to be finished. This will be a relief to residents from surrounding streets, as the current car park is not big enough for all customers and staff from the superstore.

Morrisons’ workers were banned from leaving their cars in the store’s car park to make more room for customers.

As a result, contractors and staff clogged up nearby streets New Road and Chapel Lane, bringing traffic to a halt as motorists tried to squeeze between two lanes of parked cars.

Residents complained they were unable to get their cars out of their driveways and in some cases took nearly 30 minutes to get to the end of their road.

The new supermarket has a footprint of 26,000sq ft and Castle Point’s regeneration delivery manager Mark Evershed claimed it has been attracting up to five times more shoppers to the town centre.

This has been disputed by several people who run other shops in the town centre.

Norman Ladzrie, Tory councillor for Hadleigh, said: “The extra parking space is much needed. It will take the pressure off other car parks in the area and residential streets surrounding the new supermarket.”