Anger over massive out-of-town store

But developers argue their plans will not have a detrimental effect - and may attract more shoppers to the town.

Trilogy, which bought the former Ford site and developed the recently opened Morrisons supermarket, has now submitted an application for a homestore on the site off Old Warwick Road, which was originally earmarked for offices. And RPS Architects wants to build three retail outlets on the former Focus garden centre near where the new Debenhams will be built, on the Leamington Shopping Park in Warwick.

Sue Butcher, chairwoman of Warwick Chamber of Trade, said: “We certainly hope planning permission is not granted for these new outlets. If they are it will be another massive blow for town centre shopping. It didn’t take a genius to work out that there would not be an early take-up for offices on that site - but the district council has to look further ahead.

“If they are really interested in supporting the town centre they must reject these applications.”

Concerns have also been raised by the Chamber of Trade in neighbouring Leamington. Chairman Parminder Birdi said: “The chamber is very concerned about the real possibility of further out-of-town shopping developments which can only dilute the attractions of the town centre.

“Businesses in Leamington are spending over £300,000 a year in promoting the town centre offer. It is time for our local authorities to put resource and policies in place to improve access to the town centre.”

Trilogy’s plan for the former Ford site has already prompted Warwick District Council’s deputy chief executive Bill Hunt to voice his concerns that the site would have a “detrimental impact on the town centre”.

Speaking in November, he said the proposal did not conform with Trilogy’s approved development brief to use the site for offices, “which would bring jobs and other opportunities to the area”.

But Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners, which prepared a planning document for Trilogy, says in its application that the homestore - which would sell large electrical goods, MP3 players, cameras, phones and software, furniture, lighting, carpets, textiles, cooking and dining accessories and other home furnishing items - would enable Leamington and Warwick to compete with Solihull and Coventry for its retail offering.

The application states: “There is a clear quantitative need for additional comparison retail development across the district and in Leamington itself.”

Dismissing the Clarendon Arcade project for Chandos Street, which was refused planning permission in 2011, as unlikely to materialise, the firm states: “Only a small sector of Leamington’s town centre is likely to experience a negative trading impact.”