SUPERMARKET giant Morrisons has announced it is pulling out of plans for a new store in Wickford despite committing to the project almost two years ago.

The town’s Co-op, off Wickford High Street, closed in May 2022 amid plans to build 134 flats and open a new Morrisons at the site.

Morrisons has claimed the store would be “no longer commercially viable” and the decision has sparked outrage from residents, councillors and Wickford and Rayleigh MP Mark Francois.

Despite Morrisons pulling out of the scheme, it is understood that developer Heriot UK will push on with plans to build the homes.

Mr Francois has slammed Morrisons as an “epic-timewaster” and accused the firm of treating Wickford residents poorly and “deserve to be called out”.

The MP is planning to write to major supermarkets urging them to take up the site.

Mr Francois said: “Why have Morrisons taken so long to take this decision? These epic timewasters have treated my constituents very poorly and thoroughly deserve to be called out for it.

“I will now be writing, next week, to the chief executives of all the major supermarket chains, from Asda to Waitrose, to see if we can drum up some alternative interest to finally take over and refurbish the old co-op store in the town centre.”

Wickford Tory councillor, Don Morris, has also been left devastated by the announcement.

He said: “They have wasted everyone’s time. It is disgraceful, and they must have known that it wasn’t going to work.

“The real point here is that Wickford needs more competition. We need competition with Aldi and I hope a bigger store, Tesco or Asda, could come in and compete with them and offer Wickford residents some real choice. I feel nothing but contempt, this has all been unnecessary.”

A Morrisons spokesman claimed changes to the lease meant the store was no longer viable.

They said: “We have taken the tough decision to step away from opening a new store in Wickford and will not be progressing the site further. Since our original agreement, the developer changed the commercial lease terms and plans for the proposed scheme.

“This had a significant bearing on the viability as well as the store design and configuration and following extensive discussions with the developer, we have concluded that the plans are no longer commercially viable.”