TESCO has confirmed its plans to open a new store in Looe by Easter 2013 opposite Looe Community School.

The supermarket chain is holding two days of public consultation at the school on Friday and Saturday, February 24-25, when representatives from Tesco and Mercian Developments will be on hand to answer questions and explain the plans.

Tesco spokesman Simon Hoare said the store will be a mirror image of the company's first supermarket in South East Cornwall at Callington and will provide up to 190 full- and part-time jobs.

He said: 'In a seasonal area like Looe, it is very important to be able to offer permanent employment and our shift patterns are also suitable for working mums with children at school.'

Mr Hoare said the store will have a filling station and a large car park but would not be including a post office or a pharmacy.

'Looe has two pharmacies and there is a post office already on The Barbican so we will not be including these services within the store. We will be concentrating on our core goods within the space we have,' he said.

There are also plans to include an element of new housing with discussions taking place about the inclusion of some affordable homes.

'We will be very interested to hear what the people of Looe have to say at the public consultation,' said Mr Hoare, 'but we are already encouraged by a lot of positive comments. Local people are saying they won't have to travel away from Looe to do their shopping and buy their petrol.'