Supermarket chiefs say they are 'astonished' that a plan for a new multi-million pound store in Kilgetty, which would employ 200 people, failed to pass check-out this week.
Pembrokeshire County Council planners on Tuesday refused the application by the Co-operative Group Ltd. to erect a new 25,000 sq. ft. retail store to the south of the existing Carmarthen Road site, by 10 votes to four.
Committee members agreed with a recommendation that it be turned down on the grounds that the development would adversely affect the retail allocation at New Hedges proposed within the Joint Unitary Development Plan.
It was felt that the significance of that allocation and the associated employment and park and ride proposals was so great that it would be premature to make a decision on this application which would predetermine decisions which ought properly to be taken in the Unitary Development Plan context.
Said a spokeswoman for the Co-operative Group after the meeting: "We are astonished at this reversal by Pembrokeshire County Council, particularly as council officers have been urging the Co-operative Group to move ahead with this proposed new store development as a matter of urgency.
"We cannot understand why the council now considers our application premature when only last month it was recommended for approval and there have been no changes in the circumstances whatsoever.
"We look forward to debating this issue at the forthcoming Unitary Development Plan inquiry."
The planning application for the site, which included the existing store and the community centre buildings to the west, also sought to retain the existing building in a re-modelled form as a number of small retail units on the frontage and provide a new access off Carmarthen Road, together with 246 parking spaces.