Tesco in Helston has applied to build a “customer collection pod” to allow its Click and Collect service to go ahead.

The store in Clodgey Lane has submitted a detailed plan for its proposed pod and accompanying canopy, which would be built in a space that used to be taken up by ten parking spaces within the existing car park.

Cornwall Council has already given conditional approval to a Click and Collect facility being built, back in December 2011.

If this application is allowed, customers will be able to order and pay for their shopping online and a staff member will then pick the items from the shelves.

The orders are then loaded into an existing online shopping van and taken to the storage “pod” in the car park, ready to be collected by customers at a given time. The canopy is designed to protect customers loading their cars during bad weather.

In a statement accompanying its planning application, the architects for Tesco said: “This new service is aimed at customers who lead busy lifestyles and cannot guarantee that they will be at home to take receipt of the normal home delivery service provided by the store, or for any customer who does not have time to spend shopping at the store but still needs to source their weekly provisions.”

Members of the public have until July 25 to contact Cornwall Council with their views on this application.