AN Asda store is to be built in Broadheath in an unprecedented U-turn by Trafford Council’s planning committee.

Committee members voted 11-2 in favour of the scheme, while an application for a Morrisons store was turned down by a majority of 12-1.

The meeting on Thursday was scheduled after the rival schemes were both turned down at a regular planning committee meeting on July 11.

The Asda store, which will now be built on Lyon Industrial state, and the Morrisons scheme, which had planned to take over the B&Q site on Atlantic Street ¬– were both originally turned down on the grounds they could impede plans to regenerate the Square shopping centre in Sale town centre – and so failed the council’s 'sequential test'.

But the council agreed to reassess the plans after solicitors acting on behalf of PAG, which is behind the Asda application, threatened to apply for a judicial review of the decision.

The council’s planning officers did not alter their recommendations that both applications should be turned down in light of the new meeting.

Trafford’s legal officer, Jane Le Fevre, addressed the committee before discussions began, and instructed members to assess the applications with completely fresh eyes.

Ward councillor, Denise Western, spoke in favour of the Asda application, bringing with her 750 completed forms of her own survey, which showed 73 per cent of Broadheath residents are ‘firmly in favour’ of the scheme.

Fellow ward councillor, Jacki Wilkinson, spoke against the Asda application and in favour of Morrisons, the ‘response and enthusiasm’ for which she described as ‘unprecedented’.

Although she conceded: “One thing that’s certain is that Broadheath residents do want a supermarket, it’s just a question of which.”

Mark Rebbeck, from Maloneview, the owner of the Square, said if either application went ahead, the redevelopment of the Square would simply not take place.

But Cllr Brian Shaw argued that the Square redevelopment is by no means a done deal and councillors Whetton and Walsh agreed that due to heavy traffic on the A56, Broadheath and Sale shoppers tended not to migrate to different shopping areas, meaning a new supermarket in Broadheath would not unduly impact on Sale.

Cllr Whetton voted in favour of the Asda application but against Morrisons, citing the unsuitability of the proposed site, which currently houses B&Q.

“I think that site would struggle to operate as a busy supermarket without a huge impact on the A56,” he said.

On granting the Asda application, the council’s planning officers imposed three ‘Grampian-style’ conditions which means off-site work must be completed before work on the site can start.

The conditions include highway improvements, new bus stops put in place and improvements to the bus service – either the existing 247 bus or a new ‘hopper’ bus.