Waitrose's agents tried to persuade council planners that Lidl should base new store in Shrewsbury's Riverside

How Planning, which wrote to Shropshire Council on behalf of Waitrose, had called on the authority to reject the application for the new Lidl store at Oteley Road, or "seriously jeopardise" its stalled plans for a nearby supermarket.

It today emerged that one of the suggestions put forward by the agents was that Lidl should build at the Riverside – an idea rejected by the council's planning officials.

Responding to the suggestion, council planning officer Karen Townend, said that the centre would not be suitable for the budget store.

In her planning report, which recommends that the Lidl application is approved, Mrs Townend writes: "The Riverside shopping centre does not provide any units of a similar size required by Lidl.

"Although it provides multi level units these would not be suitable for a food store use and as such the Riverside has been discounted by the applicant as not suitable."

Plans to redevelop the Riverside Mall were approved in 2012 but have subsequently stalled and remain in limbo.

They would have seen the demolition of the existing Riverside centre and the construction of a 225,000 sq ft complex featuring a department store, 50 new shops, 10 restaurants, offices and car parking.

In her report Mrs Townend said that the priority for the Riverside is to improve on retail shopping, not convenience shopping.

She said: "Whilst the Riverside Mall approval technically allows for convenience retail, it is evident the primary objective of the Riverside scheme is to consolidate and improve Shrewsbury's comparison retail offer.

"Therefore, whilst an element of convenience retail within the current Riverside scheme is acceptable in principle, it is considered reasonable to discount the scheme as part of the sequential assessment."

Shropshire Council's Central Planning Committee will consider whether to approve Lidl's application at its meeting next Thursday.

Waitrose, which has planning approval to build at a neighbouring site on Oteley Road, had called on the council to reject the application.

However, despite expecting to have opened its store in 2014, Waitrose has put the project on hold and is still unable to say if it will go ahead.

In a letter to Shropshire Council Ken Harrison, acquisitions and development manager at Waitrose, said: "I am still unable to say when the new store will be built, or indeed whether we would want to vary the application."