PLANS to build a low-cost supermarket in a Ryedale town have been rejected.

Ryedale District Council voted last week to turn down a planning application from Lidl to build a store at the coal depot in Southgate, Pickering.

Most councillors supported the new supermarket, but felt that they should not approve the application until a better scheme for dealing with the traffic congestion that the store could cause had been proposed.

Lidl has been applying for planning permission for nine months, and recently submitted a proposal to use an electronic system called MOVA which weighs up traffic flow so that traffic lights respond best to demand.

The councillors felt that this system was not reliable enough to reduce traffic problems.

They also felt that in the wake of an announcement by the Government that North Yorkshire was to get £18 million to spend on traffic improvements, they should wait until they knew if any of it would be spent on a road improvements in Pickering.

At the planning meeting last Tuesday, council officers explained that they had called in consultants Faber Maunsel to conduct a survey on how the Lidl store could affect traffic in Pickering.

The survey showed that at present, on an average Saturday in August 2009, a queue length of 102 metres was predicted. With the Lidl store in place, it was predicted this would rise to 120 metres, reaching 208 by 2024.

Faber Maunsel predicted that with the Lidl store and the MOVA scheme, the queue length would be 87 metres in the summer of 2009, but with road improvements that could be put in place by the county council; this could be reduced to just 54 metres.

Case officer Paul Simpson pointed out that MOVA was not guaranteed to deliver improvements in traffic congestion.

Coun Tommy Woodward said that the council had to take a gamble on whether a portion of the county council’s £18 million would be spent in Pickering.

Coun Keith Knaggs said: “On the one hand there is an argument for having some retail competition in Pickering, reducing the need for people to travel to Malton for a supermarket.

“On the other hand, if we do this we destroy the opportunity to secure much needed traffic improvements for the entire town, which is more important.

“This application has been in the system for nine months, and in another six weeks we will know if the North Yorkshire County Council funding is going to be there for junction realignment.

“Why are we falling over ourselves to decide now, and lose this opportunity?”

Coun Jane Wilford said: “I think that if we refuse this application then we send a clear message that it is really important that something is done to improve congestion. If we go ahead we could exacerbate the problem.”

Coun Arthur Aslett said: ““It is essential that we get another store in Pickering, but the junction must be altered.

“In the summer there are tailbacks down the A170 that are several miles in length.”

David Murphy, spokesman for Lidl, said: “Lidl is committed to this site and to significant long- term investment in Pickering.”

He said that in eight years, the county council had not carried out an assessment of the traffic problems in Pickering, and that the time had come to look at a less costly solution which could be installed quickly.