Twickenham traders are optimistic about the effect a new Tesco will have on the town after the supermarket giant announced it would be opening a new store.

The new Express store will be located where Scruby furniture used to trade in Heath Road near Twickenham Green and is expected to create between 20 and 30 jobs.

Twickenham town centre manager Esther Worboys is hopeful having observed the effect of the Tesco Metro, near St Margaret's station, that the new store will have a positive effect on the town.

She said: "Everybody sees Tesco as the big evil, but in St Margaret's there's a feeling the store has done a lot - that it has actually brought in new trade."

Alan Thomas, of V Thomas & Sons butchers, in St Margaret's Road, St Margarets, said he had not noticed a difference on his business from the Metro store, but said traders should remain wary: "Tesco is a one stop shop. People can get everything they want there. So, why wouldn't they?"

Darren Cygler, of Wishbone butchers, in King Street, Twickenham, who is on a temporary extension to his tenancy agreement, looking for new premises, said: "I'm not worried. The people who buy their meat from a Tesco express are not the people who go to a butchers so it's unlikely to take business away."

Tesco said its next step was to decide what applications it needed to make to the borough for an alcohol license and parking and loading arrangements for the store.

Tesco could not give a timescale for opening, nor the opening times of the new store.