A 163-space multi-storey car park would have a severe impact on nearby residents and should not be built, councillors have said.

Shropshire Council’s strategic planning committee was told yesterday the proposal was “fundamentally linked” to a bid by J Ross Developments to build a supermarket in the Central Car Park.

Shropshire Council refused permission for the store and the developers have since appealed against that decision.

Councillors were asked yesterday to decide whether the car park could be built as a stand-alone scheme.

They were also asked that if the Central Car Park scheme had been approved whether, hypothetically, they would have approved the Middleton Road scheme.

Committee chairman John Everall told councillors: “This is a very complex decision because we are talking about being hypothetical.”

Councillors were told they had to look at the issue so council officers can defend the refusal decision when an inspector holds J Ross Developments’ appeal in February.

Councillors unanimously agreed that because of traffic concerns, the Middleton Road scheme, as a stand-alone project, should be refused. And they voted by six to five that even if the Central Car Park store had been given the go-ahead, they would still have refused permission for the Middleton Road scheme.

Councillors said, even as part of the wider Central Car Park project which would have offered traffic improvements, they still had major concerns about the multi-storey car park plan.

Councillor David Evans said the proposal is of an inappropriate mass and scale and would have an unacceptable impact on residents and the adjacent town centre conservation area.

Councillor Mansell Williams said: “It is in a generally residential area. The idea of putting a multi-storey car park there just seems wrong to me.

“The car park is inappropriate for the site and inappropriate for the town.”

Councillor Arthur Walpole said the car park was in the wrong place.

By refusing the Central Car Park proposal, Shropshire Councillors went against their own planning officers’ recommendation.

By Iain St John