RENEWED fears that supermarket giant Asda could be the front-runner for the foodstore earmarked for the controversial Vulcan Road retail park in Minehead surfaced this week. Although landowner West Somerset Council has consistently denied any suggestion of a 'done deal' with the American-owned company in the past, the discovery of a plan showing land owned by Asda close to the proposed development as parking for 40 vehicles has fuelled concerns. The plan was drawn up by Bristol-based Fitzroy Robinson in March for Simons Developments, the company which won the contract to develop the Vulcan Road site last December. The district council accepted a scheme for a medium-sized foodstore, four non-food units and a restaurant but was unhappy with Simons' choice of German chain Lidl for the supermarket. The developers were asked to come up with some alternatives but six months on the results of their efforts have yet to be made public. Minehead Chamber of Trade chairman Graham Sizer, who like the Free Press received a copy of the plan anonymously, said he accepted that it was not necessarily a definitive one. "But it must surely be an indication that Asda is a front-runner for the scheme," he said. "Otherwise, why would land owned by the company be included and defined for parking?" Asda paid £180,000 for the third of an acre plot, which although not regarded as a 'ransom strip' preventing the development of Vulcan Road would help open up a larger potential development package. The sale was clinched in 2004, a month before the council commissioned a retail and town centre study which when published in December the same year concluded that Vulcan Road was suitable for retail use. Although the initial study was later found to be flawed because consultants had failed to include Minehead's largest supermarket, Tesco, in their calculations for future retail need, a revised version effectively came to the same conclusions. "The council can obviously say that any discussions over which supermarket will be going on that site are commercially sensitive and I expect they are," said Mr Sizer. "But if there are plans being drawn up including the Asda land as parking, I think it is time for a little transparency. "When are we going to be told the about the proposed retail mix for Vulcan Road?" However, council spokesman Stacey Beaumont said no one at the authority had seen the plan or could say why or for what purpose it had been produced. She added: "No plans have been submitted to the council as landlord or as the planning authority." Ms Beaumont said she was unable to say when details of the proposed retail mix would be available to the public.