THE saga of whether St John's - Worcester's "village in the city" - will have a supermarket or a high school in the centre of its community have taken an unexpected twist.

Tesco has withdrawn its proposal to build a superstore on the site of Christopher Whitehead High School after being told that city council planning officers were going to recommend that councillors reject the idea.

Their reasons were clear - and to many residents of St John's they will appear very sensible.

Principal planning officer Peter Yates has told us there were concerns about the shopping impact of the scheme, the traffic implications, detailed design matters that needed to be resolved - and, of course, the effect the loss of the school would have on the community.

There are two sides to this coin. Strong arguments exist in favour of building a new high school on a bigger site to allow it to provide top-flight education for a growing population.

But there are many opponents of moving the school to the edge of the city who firmly believe that the £4m needed to modernise Chrissies should be spent to keep it at the heart of the community.

What is clear today is that Tesco's decision means the future of education and shopping in St John's is back in the melting pot again.