THE opening of the new petrol station on the former Vauxhall dealership site on New Street has been severely delayed.

The Advertiser revealed in March that more than 100 jobs will be created when a new retail park featuring a McDonald’s, a filling station and several shops is completed in Andover this autumn.

MRH Retail, the independent operator due to run the petrol station under BP branding, said in April it planned to open in June, ahead of the rest of the site.

While construction work is well underway on the rest of the units, officials have now told this paper that MRH Retail has not actually acquired the garage yet.

A spokesman for MRH Retail said: “We don’t know for sure when it will open as we still haven’t got a firm commitment about when we may be in occupation.

“We won’t invest in the site until then, so any building work you see on site won’t be for the garage, it will be for the other businesses.

“It normally takes three or four months to acquire a service station and we’ve had an interest in this site for 18 months, so it’s frustrating.”

A source close to the site has told the Advertiser the rest of the units are on track for the planned autumn opening.

The multi-million-pound development will include a drive-thru McDonald’s, the arrival of Majestic Wine and Topps Tiles, the relocation of Aztec Flooring and 100 parking spaces.

Permission for the development was granted by the borough council before Christmas but little visible work had been undertaken until the spring.

Many are keen to welcome a new petrol station to the town to inject much-needed competition to the market.

There were major queues in Andover on Saturday when Tesco cordoned off all of its pumps.

Cars were queuing along Charlton Road to get petrol from Esso, the next nearest fuel stop to the supermarket giant.