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Morrison's temporary supermarket in Folkestone to close, before new store opens

By: Sam Williams swilliams@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 09:28, 14 October 2019

Updated: 11:58, 14 October 2019

A temporary supermarket - built after the original store burnt down - will close this coming weekend.

The makeshift Morrisons in Folkestone was erected in December last year after a huge blaze tore through the existing shop in November.

The temporary Morrisons Folkestone will close this Saturday. Picture: Chris Davey

The fire, believed to have started after a deep fat fryer in the cafe caught alight, destroyed much of the building, forcing it to close.

At its height, 50 firefighters tackled the flames and fortunately there were no injuries.

Work is currently under way to re-build the supermarket, in Cheriton Road.

mpu1

Bosses have now announced that the temporary shop, found in the store's car park in a big white structure, will shut on Saturday.

This means customers will be left without a Morrisons in the town for some time, as the opening date for the new store has yet to be revealed.

Work has been taking place to re-build Morrisons since May this year

In the meantime, shoppers will be able to catch a free bus to the Dover supermarket to get their groceries - around a 20 minute journey.

The shuttle will leave Folkestone at 10am, 11am, 12pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm and 5pm. It will return from Dover at 30 minutes past these hours.

An additional service will run at 9am on weekends.

A spokesman for Morrisons said: "I can confirm that the temporary store is about to close as we make final preparations for the new store that will open later this year.

"The temporary store will close on Saturday, October 19 and then there will be a free bus running between our Folkestone store and our Dover store until the new store opens."

mpu2

Although an opening date for the new supermarket has yet to be unveiled, those at Morrisons have previously stated they hope to open by Christmas this year.

In the interim period, colleagues will work in the new store, helping to get it ready.

Originally, it was thought that the fire-wrecked building would be completely demolished and replaced with a new state-of-the-art store, roughly the same size as the previous one.

But Morrisons did a U-turn on these plans, mostly due to cost, and in the end incorporated parts of the original building, such as the steelwork structure, into the re-build.

The fire, last November

Partial demolition work started in May, with builders seen on site ever since.

The new supermarket will include a bakers, butchers, fishmongers and florist, as well as clothing from the Nutmeg range.

On offer will also be a wider range of groceries, including the Health and Wellbeing range and the Free From range.

Key cutting and dry cleaning services will also be present, with Amazon lockers installed for customers to collect their online shopping.

During the summer, drivers were left frustrated after claims their cars had been splattered with paint being sprayed onto the new store.

The cars were all parked in the close-by Three Hills Sports Park when airborne paint particles wafted across the lot and landed on their vehicles.

At the time, Morrisons said it was 'aware of this incident' and was 'liaising with the lead contractor to help any drivers affected'.

Read more: All the latest news from Folkestone

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