Telford town centre bosses Hark Apollo has asked the Government to intervene in a last-ditch bid to scupper plans by Asda to build a new supermarket on the civic office site.

Telford & Wrekin Council’s plans board granted planning permission to the supermarket giant earlier this month to build a 44,000 sq ft superstore, 500-space car park and petrol station on the site of the authority’s civic offices.

The land has now been sold to Asda and the council is to move into new premises as part of the £250 million Southwater development.

But Hark chiefs today accused the authority of “flouting” new national planning guidance and losing its objectivity in deciding an application.

Now bosses have asked the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to step in.

Hark claimed the council was believed to be the first in the country to flout the Department for Communities and Local Government’s new planning policy on town centres, published at the end of last year. It said the Secretary of State had powers to intervene.

A Hark spokesman said the policy urged councils to protect its town centres from “inappropriate edge of centre development” and argued Asda’s Civic Offices plan was a perfect case in point. But Telford & Wrekin Council leader, Councillor Andrew Eade, urged Hark chiefs to concentrate on getting behind the “bigger picture” for the development of the town centre.

Asda chiefs maintain the plans board’s decision was the correct one and reflected the strong public support for their plans.

And Telford & Wrekin Council head of planning, Michael Barker, said the authority had followed the correct legal steps.