Planners ordered to stay on Newport visit bus

Protesters surrounded a minibus full of council planning chiefs when they refused to get out to see sites in Newport earmarked for new supermarkets.

One woman shouted into the bus 'You should be ashamed of yourselves' as tempers frayed during the fracas in Station Road yesterday. The protesters swarmed round the minibus to stop it leaving.

They also blocked the road to traffic in both directions during the heated exchanges.

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Gary Wade, a member of the Save Newport Campaign Group, persuaded the group to let the bus leave and it departed to a chorus of boos after a 10-minute stand-off.

The confrontation happened at about 4pm when Telford & Wrekin Council plans board members and officers arrived in Newport in a minibus to see three separate development sites.

A crowd of about 70 protesters had gathered in Station Road to voice their opposition to a plan which will see a 50,000sq ft Sainsbury's superstore built if planners give it the go-ahead next month. Tempers frayed when the planners parked opposite the site and refused to get off the bus.

Councillor Adrian Meredith tried to persuade the party to walk through the site but the council's head of planning, Michael Barker, said it was not necessary.

Telford & Wrekin Council member Councillor Adrian Meredith told Mr Barker: "You haven't got the guts to get out and face the people. That's how much Newport means to you."

When the minibus was eventually allowed to leave the planners visited a site off Audley Avenue, which is earmarked for a 33,000sq ft supermarket, and Mere Park Garden Centre, which could be changed into a foodstore if its owner wins an appeal next month.

David Parker, of the Save Newport Campaign Group, said: "We were delighted with the turnout and the peaceful protest."