TESCO has confirmed it will push ahead with its proposed superstore at Hillingdon Circus.
The retailer announced last week that it was scrapping work on 100 new stores after its profits fell for the first time in 20 years.
As a result it pulled out of its Fresh & Easy US brand, at a cost of almost £1.9bn, and said it would scale back on new supermarkets in the UK.
The proposed Hillingdon Circus development is going toe to toe with Morrisons, which has also submitted a planning application to Hillingdon Council for a site directly opposite.
But despite the dip in profits and the competition from another giant of the supermarket world, Tesco said it had no intention of shelving its Hillingdon store.
It also said it was committed to a Tesco Express in Harefield.
A Tesco spokesman said: “Both these stores are important to us and it is our intention to continue to move forward with them.”
The Hillingdon Circus Tesco is dividing traders and people who live in the area. A number of businesses people have said they would prefer Morrisons, because of its food-centred offering.
Last month, Tesco submitted an environmental statement for the superstore and an 84-bedroom hotel on the former Master Brewer Hotel site in Freezeland Way.
At the same time, Morrisons filed its plans for its £55million development, of supermarket, 107 homes and an 82-bedroom hotel next to Hillingdon station.
Yesterday Connie Evans, chairman of Oak Farm Residents’ Association, told the Gazette she was not surprised that Tesco was pressing ahead.
She said: “Tesco have spent a lot of money on this application so I am not surprised they want to keep going.
“They have spent too much to stop now.
“The majority of feedback we have got from residents and businesses is that they would prefer Morrisons, as Tesco sells eveything.
“There is no way both can open. The traffic is a bugbear already, and with two stores and the houses that come with them, the traffic would be murderous.”
