A SUPERMARKET giant has been given permission to exhume five bodies from the site of a proposed new store and reinter them in an East Lothian graveyard.

Tesco is to remove the corpses for re-interment following their discovery at a site in Linwood, Renfrewshire, and move the remains to Whitekirk Parish Church.

The bodies are thought to belong to the Spiers family who had built a small mausoleum on the site of a former Linwood Parish Church. More recent members of the family have been laid to rest at the historic East Lothian church - hence the planned move.

Lord Brodie, a judge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, granted the supermarket permission to carry out the exhumation last Tuesday.

The firm plans to demolish an existing, but unused, shopping centre in Linwood along with a former church hall to build a new town centre, including a supermarket, community halls, library, health centre and shops.

But following the discovery of a vault containing old human remains, the company was forced to apply to the court for authorisation to move the bodies.

The Rev Joanne Evans-Boiten, minister at Whitekirk, said: "I still don't really know all the details as yet, but I would assume we will be having some form of ceremony. That would be the right thing to do.

"I will have to liaise with the family to see what their wishes are, but I do hope to do this properly.

"I have not been informed of anything officially and cannot comment further until I am." During excavation work, Tesco put a camera into the vault and established that there were four lead lined coffins and debris which may be the remains of one or more wooden coffins.

The vault had been covered over and a church hall built on the site in the 1940s.

A Tesco spokesman said; "We are now reaching the conclusion of a very lengthy legal matter.

"We will continue to liaise with the families to ensure that they are happy to proceed with the final stages of this process."