IPSWICH: Work on a �70million Tesco-led development near the town centre is today on hold after a rival developer took legal action.

Final planning permission for the huge development in Grafton Way was signed off in February, nearly 12 months after Ipswich council’s planning committee approved it at a stormy meeting.

Tesco had hoped to start work on the site – which includes the former B&Q store – this spring.

But they were stopped in their tracks after Turnstone Estates, which owns the former Civic Centre site and other land off Civic Drive, sought leave for judicial review from the High Court in London.

No work can start while the threat of legal action remains.

Turnstone has outline planning permission for a major retail development on the Civic Centre site which it now brands as the “Westgate Centre” but has found it impossible to find a major retail partner while there is a threat of a huge new Tesco opening on the other side of the town centre.

Turnstone issued a statement saying there are three grounds for its legal challenge:

1): That Ipswich Borough Council breached EU law when deciding not to require an Environmental Impact Assessment for the Tesco scheme.

2): They (Ipswich BC) failed to take the matter back to committee to take account of significant changes in circumstance between the committee date and the eventual issue of the decision notice.

3): They (Ipswich BC) failed to take proper account of legislation requiring that all planning obligations are necessary, fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind, and only directly related to the development.

No one from the borough or Tesco would comment on the legal challenge.

However a spokesman for the retail giant said they were frustrated by the delay to the development: “We were ready to start as soon as the final permission was signed off. We hope things soon get sorted out,” he said.

Turnstone was believed to have interested Waitrose in taking up its largest unit on the Westgate site – and Morrisons was also thought to be interested.

But the interest of both companies cooled when it emerged that Tesco wanted to build a superstore as large as that at Copdock Mill at Grafton Way.

Tesco’s proposals were opposed by both the Ipswich Society and Ipswich Central who were both concerned about the impact of the development on town centre trade.

At the planning meeting which approved the development in March last year, the meeting was split down party lines with the Conservative and Liberal Democrats – then in control at the borough – voting to approve the proposal, with conditions, while the Labour Party opposed it.

Ironically Labour now controls the borough – the council leader is now David Ellesmere who, in April last year, said: “We were worried about the way the original decision was made.

“And there are serious concerns that the new development will cause real harm to the town centre and the prospects of the new development at Westgate and Mint Quarter.”

The legal action has put a brake on the development of the site and has put back the opening of the new store.

Originally work had been due to start last September with the store opening its doors by Christmas this year – the rest of the development would take a further 18 months to complete.

That timescale is now clearly unrealistic – and the opening of the development is dependent on when the legal hurdles are overcome.

n Do you support Turnstone’s legal bid? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail evening starletters@eveningstar.co.uk