Town centre traders have urged the Government to protect them from the threat of out-of-town supermarkets.

Philip Smith, chairman of the Better Bingley Campaign, said new legislation was needed to give planners power to veto schemes which could hit High Street shops.

He was responding to a new Government report which reveals that out-of-town superstores have taken up to 50 per cent of the custom of traditional traders in market towns and district shopping centres.

Richard Caborn, Minister for the Regions, Regeneration and Planning, says councils should change planning policies to protect town centres.

But Mr Smith said councils were not allowed to refuse planning applications simply because they would adversely affect existing businesses.

He said the law should be changed so that other traders were taken into account.

The Campaign is currently opposing plans to build a new out-of-town supermarket on the former cattle mart site. Plans have also been drawn up to redevelop Myrtle Walk shopping centre in Bingley town centre.

Traders in other towns in the district, including Keighley, say they have benefited from persuading supermarket companies to develop new stores close to the town centre

Ian Copping, chief executive of Keighley Business Forum, said shops like Sainsbury's in the town centre had undoubtedly benefited many people in the community.

Mr Smith, who runs his own business in the centre of Bingley, said: "I think they should give far more consideration to the fact that town centres are the financial basis and nucleus of the community.

"The more you protect a town centre the more you protect the community. If you take things to the letter, planners can't raise objections on the grounds of commercial viability alone and I think that's wrong. If the death of a town centre is at stake that should be taken into account.

"At the moment the whole country is losing its sense of community spirit."

Councillor Dave Green (Lab, Odsal), chairman of Bradford Council's regeneration committee, agreed rules should be beefed up.

He said local authorities and city centre organisations had been saying for years that out-of-town supermarkets were hitting town centres but the previous Conservative Government had acted too late.

"Planning guidance and rules need to reflect much more the economic and commercial issues and at the moment the planners are limited in what reason they can give for refusing an application, otherwise they stand to lose out on appeal and that doesn't do anyone any good," said Coun Green.

A Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions spokesman said: "The Government's objective is to get the right size supermarkets into the right town centres. The planning system can't protect existing businesses from competition."

But, she added, existing guidelines put the onus on developers to look for suitable town centre sites before out-of-town alternatives.

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