SHOPPERS are flocking to Tesco's new Kinson store this morning.

The doors of the Wimborne Road supermarket, which has been years in the making, opened at 8am and an official opening took place at 10am.

The long-awaited development has been described as the last piece in the jigsaw for the area, with hopes that it will bring more people in and boost other shops.

The inside of the new Tesco supermarket - described as the final part of the regeneration of Kinson - was unveiled to residents ahead of its launch.

Trevor Henstridge, store manager, says it aims to fit into the village community of the area.

However, ahead of the official opening, the Daily Echo, residents and business people, including Kinson Business Forum, St Andrew’s Church and Pelhams Park Leisure Centre, were invited to tour the new supermarket.

Trevor said: “We class this as a regeneration store, which means that we provide the catalyst for more people to stop in Kinson and hopefully they will spill out into the local community.

“We invited anyone to the preview whose garden backs onto our development, which is essentially 40 homes, to thank them for putting up with the works.

“We are not trying to take the trade from the other businesses as we don’t have a cafe, pharmacists, opticians, or a large bakery, for example. Anybody who wants these specialists for their shopping can still find them locally in Kinson.”

Maria Yeomans, personnel manager of the store, said that around 1,500 people initially applied to work in the store.

“Now we have 150 new colleagues in the store, with around 25 coming from other branches of Tesco, and around 80 per cent of the new staff are from Kinson and Northbourne.

“We have also developed a relationship with the Bourne Academy and will be welcoming some of the students in for work experience and some of the older young people in for evenings and weekends.”

All six shortlisted finalists in the Tesco Helping Hand competition, organised in partnership with the Echo, will be at today’s launch event at 10am. The winner, set to receive £2,500, will be announced next month and shoppers can now vote in store.

The shop will be open from 6am to 11pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sundays.