PERMISSION has been given for a new Morrisons supermarket to built on Minehead's Vulcan Road car park after councillors were challenged to hold a "debate on planning" and not "a pre-determined pantomime".

Having listened to just under two hours of presentations by planning officers, members of West Somerset Council's planning committee took less than an hour to give the green light for the development last Thursday.

Committee chairman Cllr Tony Knight warned members about the conflicting facts and figures put before them by various consultants and urged them to focus on what West Somerset residents really wanted.

He said: "I think consultants cost a lot of money and come up with differing figures and I think that depends on who pays for the research.

"I can pick holes in one or two of them.

"But it is a proven fact that people want this in Minehead."

He received the unanimous support of the 13 committee members who attended the meeting - six were absent - who all agreed increased competition would be good for the area.

The proposed Morrisons store will have roughly the same amount of floorspace for food and grocery sales as the town's existing Tesco store and will also include a petrol station and cafe.

However, the planning decision will still have to be scrutinised by the Government Office for the South West to ensure everything is above board as the development is against policies which restrict development on out-of-town sites.

Cllr Roger Webber said: "Many people I speak to want a choice of supermarket and quite a lot of trade will come from the existing supermarket."

He was supported by Cllr Tim Taylor who said the majority of people he had spoken to were particularly keen to see a Morrisons store in the district, but accepted that others had concerns about the proposed supermarket's impact on the town centre.

"I understand the strong feelings against it and it is very much a balancing act," he said.

"I feel people in the area need the biggest response and that is why I will be supporting this application because the majority of people seem to want it."

Opponents to the scheme maintained the council had ignored retail facts and figures as well as its own planning policies to grant permission for the store in a multi-million pound deal which will save the authority from financial meltdown.

Minehead Chamber of Trade had commissioned its own consultants' report to challenge the findings of those drawn-up by different consultants acting on behalf of the Morrisons' development and the council.

They claimed available expenditure had been overestimated, as had demand for additional retail floorspace and the amount of money spent by tourists.

Minehead businessman Graham Sizer added his voice to the objections and said some of the "spare" cash calculated by the consultants had included potential shoppers from as far afield as Challacombe and North Molton.

He said the council's own planning policies made it clear that out-of-town developments should only be allowed if they did not affect trade in the town centre and if no other sites were available.

He claimed there were other potential sites but Morrisons had been too inflexible to consider them.

"This council had a shopping plan, I think it should be thrown in the bin. Is this a planning debate or a predetermined pantomime?" Mr Sizer said as he produced a wastebin and ditched half of the council's Local Plan in it.

But the council's planning manager Andrew Goodchild said he was confident that all of the concerns and objections against the proposal were either unfounded or could be overcome.

He said the Morrisons store would bring much needed jobs to the area and detailed retail surveys had proved its impact on the town centre would not be "so serious that it would be harmful to the vitality and viability."

Cllr Steven Pugsley said it was vital the new store had good pedestrian links with the town centre and successfully called for an amendment to the suggested 31 conditions attached to the approval.

"The condition to allow shoppers to park for two hours should be changed," he said.

"Supermarket shopping tends to take about an hour, a 15-minute walk into the town centre and 15 minutes back would only leave 30 minutes in the town centre and that's not enough.

"I believe it should be three hours. If Minehead is genuinely going to compete, the car parking document should have a three hour parking period."

Council leader Cllr Keith Ross said he hoped the Vulcan Road development could spark an expansion of the town's existing shopping facilities.

"I think this application is an opportunity for expanding the shopping area of Minehead so this is not edge of town but becomes part of the shopping experience," Cllr Ross said.

But Williton Cllr Eddie May said he remained concerned by the loss of a BMX track as part of the development and called for Minehead Town Council to try and find a replacement site.

"There is no way this can be replaced in the Minehead EYE centre. BMX is coming back and keeps our children off the roads," he said.

Minehead town and district councillor Norman Hercock said work was already underway to identify an alternative site in the town.

Thursday's decision to give the green light for the development marked the end of more than four years of wrangling over the sale and development of the car park site.