ONE of the three developers seeking to build a supermarket in Christchurch has lost patience with council planners and lodged an appeal instead.

The application to build a foodstore at Meteor Retail Park in Somerford was due to go before a special planning committee on October 23, along with a multi-million pound riverside proposal at Bailey Retail Park and an application for a Morrisons at Stony Lane.

But after making “little progress” in discussions with planners, Brookhouse, the owner of the Meteor Retail Park, has decided to take the matter out of the hands of Christchurch Borough Council.

It has lodged an appeal with a government inspector, on the grounds that the council has failed to determine its application within the set time limits.

Tom Whitehead, Brookhouse’s development manager, had previously expressed his frustration at the way the council had handled the application.

At a mammoth five-hour meeting in June, councillors went against officer advice to approve the Bailey Drive proposal but refuse the other two.

However, the council later scrapped all three decisions and deferred the applications until this month.

Mr Whitehead said: “We have been working to try to resolve any outstanding issues so that the application could be treated positively.

“We believe that our application is very different from the other two applications for superstores in Christchurch in that we will just sell food and not be a multi-goods superstore.

“The impact of a new foodstore at Meteor Retail Park on the town centre is accepted as minimal and thus we believe the council could have determined the application by now.

“The regeneration of Meteor Retail Park with a new foodstore and retail units will be a vital boost to the local economy clearing-up the site and creating badly needed jobs for the local community, who have given the proposals overwhelming support.”

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