A TESCO supermarket will be built in Padiham despite huge opposition from traders, residents and councillors.

After a four-day public inquiry, which cost Burnley Council £100,000, a Government inspector said the new store can be built at the junction of Wyre Street and Lune Street.

Developers Maple Grove, an arm of the Preston-based Eric Wright Group, said the 48,500 sq ft store would employ 250 full and part-time workers.

But independent traders, who had protested against the plans for more than a year, said they were ‘hugely disappointed’ at the inspector’s decision.

They fear the store could put them out of business and sound the death knell for the town centre.

Burnley councillors had rejected the proposals in March following protests from traders.

But Tesco appealed the decision and John Gray was appointed by Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, to decide the issue.

In a report Mr Gray said he had allowed the store because he expected it to revitalise and improve the viability of the town centre.

Following a visit to the town on a Friday afternoon, he said he had been surprised at the absence of people.

He said the new store would be big enough to convince people not to travel to Burnley, Accrington or Clitheroe to do their shopping, which in turn would benefit other shops.

“Only if more people are attracted to the town centre can it regenerate and improve,” he said.

“I conclude that the proposed food store would do that and, by providing a car park in a very local location, at the edge of the defined town centre, would surely generate linked trips to existing or new town centre retailers.”

Mr Gray dismissed peoples’ concerns that it would lead to traffic congestion.

He said: “Good design, layout and landscaping can ensure an attractive development which does not detract from its surroundings and can set a marker for the design quality of whatever may be proposed on the remainder of the site.”

Coun Mark Jinkinson owns an opticians, in Burnley Road, and is chairman of Padiham’s town centre partnership.

He said: “We’re hugely disappointed about the decision to allow the Tesco store in Padiham.

"It seems the inspector has not heeded the opinions and genuine concerns of local people who are best placed to evaluate the impact on the community.

“Lets hope the so called ‘experts’ are right and Padiham will benefit from this development, because if they’re wrong then the town will lose a lot of independent traders, and will be blighted by significant traffic congestion.

“This has the potential to be a real ‘Pandora’s box’ as once the store is here there is no going back.”

Eric Broadbelt, who co-owns The Hardware Store, in Burnley Road, with his wife Carol, said: “Padiham doesn’t have a big town centre.

"A lot of the shops have already shut, which isn’t good to see when you arrive. If this causes more to shut that would be even worse.”

Ian Clough, who owns Todd Pharmacy in Burnley Road, said traders would have to come to terms with the new supermarket.

He said: “I’m just going to do what I can to improve my business and forget about Tesco and what they are doing.

"It does seem like a waste of time after the money spent on the appeal, but I suppose you have to try.”

Work is likely to start in summer 2011 and Eric Wright Construction will take about 40 weeks to build the store, which will then be handed over to Tesco to fit out.

It is understood the Tesco Express next door to the site will be closed.

Last month, Nelson’s Tesco supermarket, on the corner of Leeds Road and Scotland Road, closed two years after opening.