A REPORT into the impact the Waitrose supermarket on Malvern is to be published in early 2002.

The Civic Trust is taking three annual "snapshots" of data from the supermarket in November 1999, 2000 and 2001.

The trust will analyse data to see if there are any significant trends and report back to the supermarket.

Areas being analysed are which shops have opened and which have closed, how local businesspeople think the town centre has changed, and the effect the new supermarket has had on shoppers in terms of whether it has increased or decreased trade in other shops.

Waitrose, which commissioned the report, will then release the details to the public.

"Waitrose are very interested to see what the trends are, whether they are good or bad," said Paul Davis, spokesman for the trust.

"Often supermarkets that are badly sited, too big for their location or in the wrong place get a bad press, but the good ones don't make the news."

The supermarket has been hugely controversial since the district council decided to sell the car park on Back Lane in 1995 to make way for the store.

When the plans were unveiled a year later they were greeted with horror in many quarters, as people predicted it would cause huge changes to the centre.