CAMPAIGNERS have been given another chance to defeat plans for a supermarket.

Waitrose was granted planning permission last month by Winchester City Council for a store in Weeke, on the former Alan Day Honda car showroom site at the junction of Stoney Lane and Stockbridge Road.

However a council oversight meant that people were not given a proper chance to object.

So the council is giving residents a chance to comment, and if relevant objections are raised the scheme will be referred back to committee.

The Friends of Weeke Information Group has submitted a list of objections and has called for the plan to be reconsidered.

The group also says that planners have underestimated the amount of cross-town traffic the new supermarket will attract.

Their studies have assumed that people living in the south and east of Winchester will carry on shopping at Tesco in Winnall and at Sainsbury's in Badger Farm.

However, campaigners say that Waitrose, with its upmarket clientele, will attract shoppers from all over Winchester, especially the largest affluent area of St Cross.

They also say that the scheme will have a big impact on the leafy suburb of Weeke.

The decision to approve Waitrose's plan raised eyebrows after planners threw out proposals for a low-cost Aldi on the site next door, the former Chimneys pub, as reported in the Daily Echo, above right.

It left one community leader admitting that the city's well-heeled residents had got their way because they had the biggest voice.

Alan Weeks, a spokesman for Winchester Residents' Association, said that he understood the decision against Aldi to be based on standard planning issues as well as the amount of support the schemes had received.

He added: "The truth is more people in Winchester supported Waitrose and that's quite a big part of it.

"The fact is that Winchester caters for the well-heeled and that the well-heeled have a bigger voice. It is hard to see many of the city's more affluent residents going to Aldi, but not Waitrose."

Meanwhile Aldi has resubmitted a second plan for its site next to Waitrose.