BRITAIN'S biggest supermarket chain has come under fire for turning a traditional village shop in the New Forest into a "garish" convenience store.

Tesco was criticised at a meeting of the district council's planning committee, which rejected a retrospective application for two signs on the front of the former Purkess store in Brookley Road, Brockenhurst.

The shop, which opened a century ago, was converted into a Tesco Express outlet last year.

Critics of the conversion include Brockenhurst councillor Maureen Holding, who told the committee: "I have received a number of complaints about the building's new frontage.

"It used to be Forest friendly but is now totally urban - the sort of thing you can find in any town or city.

"If you're going to make the Forest the same as everywhere else in the country, why bother to turn it into a National Park?

"The front of the Tesco store is garish and out of character."

One of the new signs advertises an ATM cash machine that was refused planning permission last month and will have to be removed unless Tesco wins any subsequent appeal. The other refers to a car park behind the shop.

Cllr Holding criticised the company for installing the signs without consent.

She said: "Why should the big boys come along and put in goodness-knows-what before they even get the go-ahead?"

Forest North councillor David Scott said the ATM sign - blue with the word "Cash" in white lettering - was "unacceptable and unnecessary".

New Milton member Alan Rice referred to the hostility surrounding the store's new look and said the dcor should be replaced with "Harrods green-gold".

Tesco is Britain's biggest supermarket group and one of the top three retailers in the world.

A company spokesman was unavailable to comment on criticism of the Brockenhurst branch, formerly a village shop run by trader John Purkess.