Supermarket giant Asda has been told it can keep a 10ft-high metal fence it built around a petrol station without planning permission. 

The company submitted a retrospective planning application for the green barrier around the site in Sale. 

The petrol station shares a boundary with the The Brooklands Tap pub and a neighbour’s garden and Asda bosses came under fire from a resident who complained about the height of the fence. 

During a town hall planning meeting on Thursday, the resident, named as  Mr McGuinty, said the fence had a ‘negative and overbearing’ impact on his property.

“The fence is too high overbearing for a residential area and looks more like a security establishment than a petrol station,” he added.

Cllr Barry Brotherton criticised the firm and said a company like Asda should submit its applications ‘on time’ and avoid retrospective planning.

He said: “But the company, it seems to me, does what it wants. I would urge members to refuse the application on the grounds that the fence is just too high.”

But committee members sided unanimously with a council officers’ recommendation to approve the application.

Cllr Karen Barclay said that while she sympathised with the resident’s concerns she said the fence was essential for health and safety reasons.

“It is there to stop people getting into the station from the neighbouring pub,” she added.

“I really can’t see an issue with it.”

Cllr Bernard Sharp said he had visited the site and agreed that he “can’t see anything wrong with it”.

“It will blend in in time,” he added.