Plans to build a new Tesco superstore and a care home could damage Ilkley’s ‘prosperity and unique culture’ it was warned yesterday.

On the final day of a public planning inquiry into the supermarket giant’s plans for the town, it was also claimed proposals by the supermarket giant would ‘significantly adversely affect the vitality and viability of Ilkley’.

But those claims were rebuked by Tesco, who said their proposals for a new store in Mayfield Road and the transformation of their existing site in Springs Lane into a care home and smaller retail units, ticked the ‘boxes for general economic development’.

Tesco have been appealing decisions by Bradford Council to turn down their applications last year, before Government Planning Inspector Harold Stephens, who has been presiding over the inquiry at Ilkley Playhouse.

The Council said the plans for a new supermarket were contrary to planning policy, and the care home proposals were refused on the grounds of loss of retail land. It has been defending its decisions, while residents’ group IRATE – Ilkley Residents Against Tesco Expansion – is also against the plans.

And after the eight-day inquiry finished yesterday, all sides will now have to wait for Mr Stephens’ final report and decision, which is expected before the end of August.

Final objections to the Tesco plans were heard from Ilkley Civic Society, Sacred Heart Primary School and Wharfedale Friends of the Earth.

John Sanders, for IRATE, said the group, spearheaded by seven or eight individuals and backed by thousands of signatures on a petition, had shown Tesco’s plans to increase their ability to sell groceries and other goods, were to the detriment of the town and its character.

“If Ilkley’s people, prosperity and unique culture are destroyed, there is no way back,” he warned.

Martin Carter, barrister for the Council, said Ilkley did not need a new superstore as it is adequately serviced by what is already present and plans for the town centre are about consolidation and not expansion.

“The proposal would significantly adversely affect the vitality and viability of Ilkley,” he concluded.

But Patrick Clarkson QC, for Tesco, said it had been proven the existing store, built in 1982, was not suitable to satisfy the company’s customers. He said the town, its shoppers and rivals would relish a bigger store.

“The boxes for general economic development are ticked,” he said. “Competition is healthy. The customer gains.”

Mr Clarkson also criticised some of IRATE’s tactics, in particular a petition and a questionnaire which he called “self-serving solicitation” and branded claims by the group that Tesco was deliberately ‘short stocking’ to persuade customers a new store was needed as a “conspiracy theory”.