Local residents say they are “gutted” Foodstuffs has pulled out of building a New World supermarket in Flaxmere.

“Our mayor said it was Flaxmere’s time but now Foodstuffs has said ‘no, it’s not’,” said Jenny Taylor, a Flaxmere resident for over 50 years.

“I came here before there were any shops and I have never seen the village improved since it was built.”

Flaxmere councillor Henry Heke said he was “really gutted” plans for the new store had been cancelled.

 “Over the next five years, our community is going to grow by 3000 to 5000 people.

“In order for our community to thrive, we need facilities and services that are going to be able to cater for their needs,” he said.

“I'm really gutted that it's been cancelled,” said Flaxmere councillor Henry Heke.

Currently 11,000 residents are serviced by an existing New World supermarket, built over two decades ago.

Foodstuffs said that building a new supermarket at the location isn’t sustainable in the current economic environment.

In a statement to Local Focus, Foodstuffs spokeswoman Emma Wooster said, “Everyone is gutted we can’t go ahead as expected, but we want to assure our customers we remain committed to providing the best retail experience possible and that we’ll continue providing the highest quality products from New World Flaxmere.”

Cherie Naera has in the area for 20 years and regularly shops at New World Flaxmere: “I just go there for the basics but lately there’s been hardly anything there.

“We were looking forward to having a nice big supermarket out here with more variety. Sometimes it’s disappointing to come down to the centre and everything’s just a mess and old, and it’s not nice at all. I hope this village centre will be uplifted.”

Heke said that though Foodstuffs is off the table as a buyer, “that gives us the ability now as a council to go back to the drawing board and figure out who the other ones are. Is it Progressive, is it a private entity, or is it a collective?

“We deserve something on this land that’s been prepared. We’ve got about 150 new homes coming up here.”