THE decision to grant planning permission for an “unwanted supermarket” to be built on a Wordsley pub site “flies in the face of local democracy” – according to ward councillor Paul Brothwood.

NewRiver Retail can now plough ahead with its plan to build a Co-op store on the car park at The Ashwood pub in Sandringham Road after a successful appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

Dudley Council’s planning committee had originally thrown out the scheme – saying it would create parking problems and have a detrimental impact on other nearby shops – but Her Majesty’s planning inspector Michael Boniface over-turned the council’s decision and ordered the authority to pay NewRiver Retail’s appeal costs.

The inspector said the council had “prevented or delayed development that should clearly have been permitted” and he said the authority failed to properly consider its own policies with regards to parking standards, failed produce evidence to substantiate its refusal of planning permission and “provided vague and generalised assertions about the proposal’s impact”.

Allan Lockhart, property director at NewRiver Retail, said there had been “no other option” than to appeal and he said the property company, which bought The Ashwood from Marstons, would now be seeking to recover the costs of the appeal which would ultimately be a blow to Dudley council taxpayers.

Councillor Khurshid Ahmed, Dudley's cabinet member for planning and economic development, said the authority was “disappointed” to lose the appeal but it accepted the judgement.

Wordsley councillor Paul Brothwood (UKIP), however, who campaigned on behalf of residents to see the scheme off, was fuming at the decision which he said “flies in the face of local democracy”.

He told the News: “Local residents made it very clear they did not support this application as well as the planning committee.”

Fellow ward UKIP councillor Kerry Lewis added: “There have been a lot of residents who are dead against it. It's going to bring more traffic through there and more noise with deliveries."

Meanwhile, cllr Brothwood said he would not be giving up the fight – adding: "I am in discussions with another developer to see if there is an alternative option for the entire site.

"The fight against this unwanted supermarket will continue and I can only thank residents for working so closely with me on this issue."