Well, it's been nearly three months since the opening of the new Clay Cross Tesco, and now it's like it's always been there. Activity on the site has slowed right down. A new car parking area close to the town centre is in operation, and the new Spiritualist Church is finished. It has a lovely Peter Maris sculpture on the rear wall facing Bridge Street. Peter has been beavering away in his local workshop on more sculptures and panels (see picture).

Once planning issues have been sorted out, we expect the second phase of the development to start in the Spring. in the meantime, NEDDC are working hard at attracting shoppers into Market street - there's a lovely mural (see picture) on the access road to the store.

In the meantime, if you want to see some more of my images, Allison Westray Chapman from NEDDC has kindly agreed to put some of them up at the Coney Green Business Centre in Clay Cross. Their website is at http://www.coney-green.co.uk/.

Coney Green Business Centre offers a friendly reception service to meet and greet visitors, staffed between 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday. It also offers serviced office suites and workshops, industrial units and excellent conference and meeting facilities.

Having managed to dig my way out of my drive, I took a trip round Clay Cross Sunday afternoon. I guess we had around two feet of snow between Tuesday 30 November and Saturday 4 December. Happily the new store car park was mostly clear, with piles of snow up to 5m high at the edges. Gritters had been at work on the new link road and round the car park and bus station. And the store looked ready. I'm told that Peak FM are publicising the store's opening this morning. Good luck chaps - here's to phase 2. I'll post some images this evening, but there are some on Flickr.

I see Blogger have recently added a hit counter to the options menu, so I've included it (see right). I guess this is total hits since I started the blog on 24 January 2010.
PS: 4" of snow in Clay Cross this morning, and it was still there at 22:00, with temperatures at minus 6.0 deg. I hope the new link road is on a gritter route.

The new link road was opened to traffic this afternoon at about 14:30. I just happened to be in the Cross. All the barriers had been taken away, replaced by lines of cones. A sure sign. Sure enough, half an hour later, the cones had gone, and there were large numbers of people in full PPE (including David) looking very pleased with themselves. So I was probably one of the first officially to drive down the new road (and back). Well done chaps. I know how it feels - you must be very proud that another important stage in the process is completed.
PS I wonder what the stage 3 safety audit picked up?
PPS I wonder what it's going to be called? New Bridge Street sounds logical. Up to NEDDC I guess. I hope it won't be a "Way" or an "Avenue".

Two weeks to Tesco opening. This image shot through the store front window. I have to go through all sorts of permissions and inductions to go inside now, so best stay out of the way really. What struck me this morning was how the development has now completely transformed this corner of the town. Not just the store building, but the bus station, landscaping, changes to the road layout, the whole thing. It's as if the centre of gravity of the town has moved north 300 yards. Is that feeling shared by town centre traders and shoppers? What do you think? Here's your chance to comment.

We're rushing headlong for (I'm told) a 6 December store opening. Everything is happening everywhere; trees planted, tarmac laid, lines painted, paving laid, chiller cabinets and gondolas being installed, phones connected, signs put up, you name it. I've posted two images (both captured yesterday): one looking in through the window (I liked the reflection of the spire and fire station tower) and the other showing the activity outside (compare this with the 16 October image).

Well, I was going to do some more photography today but the weather said otherwise. Instead, I've done a bit of a retrospective on Flickr, looking out some images captured in January. It's only looking back that I can see which images weren't important then, but are now. There'll be more to come. I hope the weather clears up tomorrow - another site visit is planned for then. In the meantime, lights are burning in the new store...

Two visits, one yesterday and the other today, to dodge the showers. Interior work on the Tesco store is well under way, with the final floor going in at breakneck speed. How these guys lay the floor tiles to line and level so accurately and so fast is beyond me. Also, the block paving for the Avenue (see Flickr)is going in, with its thin blue wavy line. The link road to the A61 is virtually complete, waiting for wearing course, with the new roundabout finished. The bus station has bus shelters. The mobility centre and new loos are nearly finished. The main store car park is looking more like a car park now than a building site. And the section of Bridge street north of the site, being improved by Derbyshire County Council, is looking nearly finished.

My latest visit was last Saturday morning and (believe it or not) the sun was shining. Interior walls for the Tesco section of the main building were going in (see photo). The new roadway alongside Somerfields was being surfaced. The link road to the A61 is virtually finished. Less and less of Bridge Street is evident, with surfacing going on there as well. And Mr Bown and Mr Snape's premises have now disappeared (missed that, unfortunately). Somebody told me Tesco is less than 12 weeks from opening. I'll have to visit more often.
Also pictured is Aaron, who won the balloon race, receiving his prize (a signed football and tickets to the game) at the Chesterfield United ground last Friday.

I did a quick site visit a week ago Saturday, the day after the open day. This is the new Tesco front door. I'll be going back in three months to see the great Clay Cross public disappearing through it, possibly.
There was a smell of blacktop in the air, always a sign that things are moving towards a completion date. The new link road from Bridge Street to the rear of Somerfields is in and being used by the public. A lot of the floor in the new Tesco is in to finished level. Blacktop is going down at the A61 junction. The car park is taking shape. And there are now two big information hoardings with a site plan, a mural and (yes) my digger image, with credits (see Flickr). Thanks, folks, what a great advert for geoff hicks photography.