PENDLE’S first Booths supermarket will not now open until 2013, after building work in Barrowford hit complications.

Work on the new store, on the site of Park Mill and the former Pendle Brook House care home in Halstead Lane, was set to be completed by next year.

However, the North West-based firm yesterday confirmed that extra work was required.

Once opened, the store will create the equivalent of 70 full-time jobs locally.

John Pope, chairman of Barrowford Parish Council, described the latest announcement as ‘bad news’.

He said: “The main reason it was proving popular with people in Barrowford were the jobs it was going to bring and the increase in the number of visitors.

Other shops and cafes were hoping to do well out of the increase in visitors.”

A spokesman for Booths said the postponement was due to ‘unforeseen complications’ at the site, off Gisburn Road.

The firm had been diverting essential power supplies and drainage, as well as carrying out structural works to support the highways.

Although work on the store will not resume until spring next year, Booths will open a short-stay car park in Barrowford in the interim.

Property director Graham Booth said: “Booths is very much committed to developing the new store.”