Council officers say indoor shopping village Christchurch Emporium should not get planning permission, pending further information.

The application, which was sent more than six months ago, is currently set to be recommended for refusal by council planning officers. They are awaiting more information from the planning agent, which could change their recommendation.

The business opened in April, and claims to have more than 185 sellers of items including antiques, furniture, toys, decorations and clothes.

The proposal for the former Mostyn's workshop is applying for a change of use to retail, cafe, office and conference space.

At the time the application was predicted to take around 13 weeks to complete.

But it was delayed in being published on the council's website, due to a wait for validation documents from the applicant.

The Emporium had a turbulent start, after a dispute between its two directors led one to seek advice from insolvency experts.

When it opened, concerns were raised by a handful of Christchurch traders over the lack of planning permission.

A spokesperson for Christchurch council confirmed the officer’s recommendation was currently to refuse the application.

They were awaiting more information, namely a retail impact assessment from the applicant, he added. Depending on this information the officers' recommendation could change.

A decision on whether the scheme would go before committee or be decided by officers, would not be made until later this month.

It would depend on whether the item was called in by a council member or whether there was a lot of objections to the proposal.

Planning agent, Helen Harris from Tanner and Tilley said they were preparing additional information for the council but stressed no decision had been made on the proposal.

The owners of the Emporium declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Echo.