Coventry Council has now amended plans for the Phoenix
Initiative, which involves demolishing dozens of buildings in the Hales Steet area to make
way for squares and piazzas stretching from the Cathedral to Cook Street Gate by the Inner
Ring-Road.
Manager of the Sainsbury’s Trinity Street store Mike Campaign believes that the
new plans for his outlet will compliment the scheme perfectly.
He said:
"We were asked by the council if we would consider moving over to a site by the
Britannia Hotel, but we told them that we wanted to stay by the bus-stops because many of
our regulars use the routes.
"We are now undertaking £2million worth of work so that we can make the store a
lot more customer friendly and create more space inside.
"We have listened to comments from shoppers and from staff and changed the
checkouts to allow more room, and moved the bakery upstairs to allow more floor
space."
The store, which has a floor area of 12,000 sq ft, will also have a new entrance which
will front onto the Phoenix Initiative’s new Millennium Square, and Campaign believes
this will be of benefit to both parties.
He said:
"We have had an excellent relationship with the council and they are delighted
with the plans we have produced because they know the store will be in keeping with the
exciting development of the city centre.
"At the moment all of our plans involve the interior of the building because we do
not want to come up with proposals for the exterior only to find out they are very
different from what the council are doing around us."
The work on the Sainsbury’s store will start in September and should be complete
by late January.
