Fears have been renewed a supermarket giant may open a store that could spell the death knell for town centre businesses in Benfleet.

Many traders now believe a Tesco store will be built on the site of the former Q8 garage at Tarpots, in London Road.

The service station closed last week, and Alan Foster, who runs the Classic Car Centre at the garage, claimed Tesco had bought the site.

He and his business partner Grant Holley now fear for their livelihoods.

Mr Foster, 29, said: "The petrol station is now boarded up and derelict and they filled in the petrol tanks.

"Tesco called us to say they are the new owners. They said we can carry on as normal, but I would imagine they will be putting in planning permission to build a store there.

"Our future is very much up in the air as they may well come back to us and tell us to sling our hook.

"We've invested a lot of time, money and effort in the business, working seven days a week just to break even."

The classic car centre carries out repairs, sales and MoTs, and is one of the only garages in the area that caters for disabled market.

The closure of the petrol station is an extra blow for motorists - there are now no services along the A13 in the Benfleet area.

Mr Foster also fears a new supermarket will lead to increased traffic in the already busy Tarpots area.

A spokeswoman for Tesco said she could not comment on the situation until a planning application was submitted.

Castle Point Council said it had not received any planning application for the site and would not comment on speculation about a Tesco replacing the petrol station.