Business leaders and traders in Bingley have given a mixed reaction to plans by Sainsbury’s to open a new multi-million pound town centre store.

As revealed in the Telegraph & Argus, the retailer has bought the former Bradford & Bingley headquarters in Main Street.

It has plans to build a 40,000sq ft food store on the site of the current offices, which have been empty since staff moved to the nationalised bank’s Crossflatts base in 2008.

Jamie Illingworth, chairman of Bingley Chamber of Trade, said: “The traders of Bingley have been in dire need of increased footfalls since the relief road opened and attracting such a well-known retailer to the town should help increase business for everyone.”

Mr Illingworth added: “It is important that the design of the new store reflects the heritage of the area, but if done properly we should have a real asset which can be the catalyst for economic growth in the town.”

Hairdresser Donna Crowley, owner of Ophiuchus in Main Street, agreed the new store would improve shopping in Bingley.

“I think it is going to be much better,” she said. “This town could be like Saltaire or Ilkley – there is enough people and money around – but it looks like a deprived area because it is full of charity shops.”

Some businesses feared they may not be able to compete with the supermarket.

Steve West, co-owner of Simply Sumptuous cafe in Main Street, said: “My main concern is that most Sainsbury’s stores do have coffee shops, so we are going to have competition. It will dilute the trade.”

Paulette Johnson, owner of Rustic Garden flower shop in Main Street, said a Sainsbury’s store would hit traders at Bingley’s 5Rise shopping development, which opened at Christmas last year.

Her colleague, Margaret Anderson, said: “I have lived in Bingley for 30 years and over that time, we have lost all the individual shops and we were just starting to get them back again. My worry is that they will suffer.”

Mike Smith, who owns Opulence, a gift shop in Main Street, said: “I don’t know whether folk are going to come into Bingley, get their shopping in their cars and then leave, but it has got to be better than the building being empty.”