Work is due to start imminently on demolishing the site in King Street to transform it into a 115-bedroom Travelodge hotel.

Now Manchester developers Kempsten Ltd, who own the land, have applied to the council for a condition to be removed to allow a food store to open on the site.

"The prospective end user of the retail site is Tesco, who wish to use the space as a Tesco Express food store," Kempsten's application to the council says. Plans to turn the derelict site into a hotel and shopping development were submitted to the city council in October.

The six-storey development has already been given permission for four floors to be used as a hotel. But it is the retail area on the lower two floors which is still under discussion.

Permission to go ahead and demolish the existing bingo hall and cinema building was granted by the council last year.

The site has been empty since the cinema closed in August 2007.
Gala Bingo hall shut six months earlier.

n A Lancaster juice cafe is to move into a more central location.
Juicafe, currently in Fleet Square, Damside Street, is to move to new premises in Market Street.

Oli Wilson-Fish, who runs the business with his wife Indie, said the new premises – which used to be the Book Clearance Centre and more recently a Christmas shop – would be more convenient for customers.

They hope they will be ready to open on July 25.