PLEASE don’t give us a third summer season of misery. That was the plea from one trader as shop owners and businesses heard about the Waitrose development plans for Wimborne.

The packed meeting, organised by Wimborne chamber of trade but open to all businesses, on Tuesday night heard that development works will start on the roads in February and take three months.

The site is currently being cleared, the foundations are in the process of being laid and Waitrose expects to put in the steel framework before Christmas.

Pleading that the timetable should not slip back, the trader said: “Lots of us are in the tourism trade. We have had two rotten summers, first the bridge closure, then the fire.

“We can’t sustain a third bad summer while the roads are blocked and you can’t get people in.”

Responding, Jonathan Banham, Waitrose development surveyor, said: “We are working our hardest to get it for February. We are in the council’s hands.”

Waitrose representatives said they aim to open the store in the second half of 2010 and when finished it will be slightly smaller than the Ringwood store, selling food, health and beauty products.

The 215-space car park will be two-hour pay and display, managed by the district council.

Mr Banham said the supermarket plans to give customers a parking refund, and as shoppers spent on average 45 minutes to an hour in-store, it would give them time to shop in the town.

Traders laughed when they heard that the development had also recorded a first, when Latin graffiti was scrawled on site hoardings.

Negotiation work continues to provide an open air bridge link to Crown Mead but its design will include steps so the disabled will have to use the existing route.

Traders were also encouraged to submit photographs or evidence about the use of the cricket ground over the years, as a campaign group who want to stall the development are trying to have the space designated a town green.