Two of the developers bidding for Oswestry’s proposed supermarket complex today called on planners to postpone any decision at this week’s crunch meeting and look at all four applications again.

The calls for a decision to be deferred have come from John Hughes of car firm JT Hughes which is planning, in partnership with guttering firm Guttercrest, to build a supermarket on its Victoria Road site.

The call has also come from Simon Hoare, consultant for Liberty Mercian, which is behind £56 million plans to redevelop Oswestry’s Smithfield livestock market site.

Yesterday it was revealed that planning officers are recommending that both applications be thrown out, claiming they are too far out of the town centre.

Officers have suggested to Shropshire Council’s strategic planning committee, which meets on Thursday, that the new multi-million pound store should be built either on the Central car park or on timber firm Richard Burbidge Ltd’s Whittington Road site.

The officers have suggested deferring the Burbidge application for three months while investigations take place to see if traffic problems associated with Central car park, which in its present form is recommended for refusal, can be ironed out.

But Mr Hughes and Mr Hoare both said today that they wanted their applications to be deferred as well.

Mr Hughes said: “I don’t think the planners’ report highlights many of the advantages our bid would bring to Oswestry.

“If the council is deferring Burbidge’s for three months they can defer our bid as well, so councillors can learn more about the advantages of our bid.”

Mr Hoare said: “I think there is very little difference between all three out-of-centre applications. There is no harm in deferring all three until the Central car park issue is resolved.”

Peter Vernon, development consultant for the Burbidge application, said: “The company has invested a good deal of time and effort putting together an application on the site that is sequentially the most deliverable and viable, and best placed to meet the town’s identified need for a supermarket and cinema.”

By Iain St John