TESCO has not ruled out reviving its plans to build a store at Barnards Green.

The retail chain planned a supermarket for the centre in the mid-1990s, but its application was turned down by Malvern Hills District Council in 1997, at the same time that the town centre Waitrose store was approved.

In 1999, the supermarket giant confirmed it was assessing the situation and still held options on land in Barnards Green. Tesco spokesman Richard Petrie said this week the company was still ''looking to develop" in the Malvern area.

"We are looking at all the options that are around at the moment," he said.

When asked whether Tesco had been in touch with Malvern Hills District Council's planning department, Rosalyn Kirby, the authority's planning officer, said: "We haven't heard anything. We've not had pre-application talks with them and we have certainly not had an application."

The mid-1990s Tesco plan was to build the supermarket on land south of the existing shopping centre, now occupied by light industrial units. Part of the Malvern College playing field would also have been built on.

In what may be an unrelated development, the freehold of the Somerfield supermarket in Barnards Green has changed hands.

Somerfield spokesman Emma Parker confirmed the change of ownership which had happened recently, but could not say who the new owner was.

" We've nine years left on the lease and have no intention of closing the store," she said.