SO. The St John's supermarket v school saga goes on.

Another surprise is sprung this morning with the Evening News front page revelation that Sainsbury's is prepared to pay for a multi-million revitalisation of the present Christopher Whitehead school buildings.

This is a move nobody could have predicted and one that throws the whole issue into the melting pot again.

Sainsbury's has won permission to develop at Swanpool after going to appeal.

A watershed in the long-running tale came when a Government inspector said, in his view, St John's could, and should, be judged as a separate shopping entity and a supermarket would not be out of place in this community.

It was one point of view, but a view not shared by many. So the controversy rages on.

The Tesco scheme is to demolish Chrissies and rebuild it on a green field site just out of the city, on the Rushwick side. The supermarket chain funding the move would then build on the vacated land.

The good news would have been a state-of-the-art-school - the bad news that pupils would be, in some cases, miles from their place of education.

Worcester City Council is presently locking horns with the county council over this very issue.

But it would be wise to look at the altruistic reasons for today's revelations. It is obviously a plan to keep out one supermarket chain rival and advance the cause of their own company.

The Evening News has supported the status quo and, at first sight, the latest scheme backs this view.

What we can say is that it is heartening that at last people appear to putting the case for the pupils a lot higher up the agenda than previously.