THE prospect of Tesco dominating Southend town centre is looming over businesses as councillors debate whether to approve plans for a giant new store.

The supermarket chain wants to transform the former B&Q site, in Short Street, into a three-storey complex, selling everything from food to household electrical goods.

The proposal has drawn scathing criticism from independent and chain shops alike, which fear the size and proximity of the proposed store could be the death blow for South-end’s struggling High Street.

Paul Slennett, owner of the Southend Christian Bookshop, in London Road, collected signatures from more than 200 businesses for an anti-Tesco petition last month.

He said: “It would stop everything. It would be the end of the High Street and the end of anything else which wanted to come here. All we would have is Tesco. Choice would be a thing of the past.”

The Tesco development, which has been in the pipeline for more than four years, was largely welcomed when the idea was first pitched in 2007.

Supermarket chiefs said they envisaged a £150million building, combining a new store with hundreds of affordable flats.

The plan died when the recession struck a year later.

It took until March this year for a trimmed down, £50million version, shorn of the homes, to emerge.

Even then, the proposals appeared on track until they were derailed by Southend Council’s highways officers, who announced last month the surrounding roads could not cope with the planned store.

Despite proposing to leave a third of the supermarket unused and cutting its 540- space car park to 360 spaces, Tesco chiefs could not persuade councillors to grant planning permission a week later.

The plans have now been deferred until at least October, allowing time for Tesco to regroup, but also allowing its opponents to take centre stage.

Morrisons and Sainsbury’s, both behind plans for major stores in Hadleigh and on Southend United’s Roots Hall ground respectively, have already submitted objections on the grounds it could destroy competition among the town’s supermarkets.

With large stores such as TJ Hughes pulling out of the High Street, smaller traders are desperate to tell councillors their fears. The manager of one chain shop, who did not want to be named, said his firm had already given up the fight.

He said: “We’re just waiting for our lease to expire before we leave. There’s nothing left for us in the High Street now.”

Jack Higgs-Wilson, owner of Higgs Leather, in the Victoria shopping centre, added: “Tesco would be a nightmare for us if it was built. Because it sells everything, people buy everything there. It won’t help business elsewhere. It will take their trade away.”

In its defence, Tesco says it will plough more than £250,000 into the community, in the form of Section 106 payments – sweeteners offered to the council in return for planning permission.

In addition, the supermarket has already agreed to build a new youth centre on the B&Q site, to replace the nearby ageing Focus youth facility.

It claims the planned “skywalk”, an elevated walkway linking the supermarket to the Victoria shopping centre, will improve visitor numbers for the troubled shopping centre.

The arguments have convinced centre owner Bill Harkness, who said it would be a “tragedy” if the development was not allowed to go ahead.

The challenges facing the Victoria are plain to see. Out of 79 shops, 49 are empty. The Cafe Society has also closed.

It is clear bosses are pinning their hopes on Tesco. They hope customers tempted into the new store will also visit the Victoria and the High Street.

However, Tesco has not yet persuaded protest group Saxon King, in Priory Park, which erected a huge banner reading “Tesco kills shops” on the B&Q site before councillors decided to postpone a decision on the development.

A spokesman for the group said: “The banner said it all. We don’t want a Tesco and the other shops don’t want it either.

“The council needs to listen to what the people want.”

The new Tesco will undoubtedly encourage shoppers into the town centre. But will it take trade away from existing shops? Only time will tell.