A NEW flagship Booths store will open in Hale Barns next month - signalling the end of a bitter nine-year planning wrangle over multi-million pound plans to redevelop the village's 1960s ‘Square' shopping centre.

The 30,000 sq ft Booth store will be the anchor store of a £30m revamp of the shopping mall, that also includes 24 flats, a cafe and other shops.

The Booths store - due to open on April 15 - has provided a jobs boost, with 93 posts created.

The village has also been buoyed by the re-opening of the area's post office - 16 months after it was forced to close when demolition of the Square began.

Hale Barns councillor Bernard Sharp said he was 'delighted' by both developments.

"I am enthusiastic that at long last the shopping centre is going to reopen in the middle of the month, we are all looking forward to it.

"And it is absolutely tremendous that we have a post office again - it will be a great asset.

"The community will be very happy."

The post office, which is now based across from the shopping centre in Best One convenience store, is still run by the Makdani family. Former postmaster Dhiresh is now taking a back seat role, though, and his wife, Anita, has taken day-to-day control.

Dhiresh said: "We are very pleased to have reopened. The feedback we have had so far has been very good, and we want everyone to know we are back in the community."

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD: The scheme to redevelop the Square was approved by Trafford’s planning committee in March 2011, after development plans for the shopping centre had moved back and forth through the planning process for five years.

In 2008, a much larger scheme was finally approved despite a high profile campaign by the Hale Barns Residents Response Group to block it.

But this scheme was shelved after anchor store Waitrose pulled out in favour of opening a store in Broadheath.

The scheme approved in 2011 was held up because the post office and two other businesses – Admirals fish and chip shop and Hale Barns Tandoori – refused to move out.

However, after a public inquiry in February 2013, secretary of state Eric Pickles rubberstamped planning inspector Mel Middleton’s recommendation to grant compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) for the three businesses, allowing for construction to begin.