SHOCK proposals for a massive new Worcester supermarket have been dramatically shelved - in favour of a controversial bid to build more than 100 new homes instead.

Your Worcester News can reveal how a London-based developer has scrapped attempts for a 60,000 square foot Sainsbury's on the site of the Ketch car boot sale off Broomhall Way after the giant foodstore pulled out of talks.

And 18 months after first launching the now-ditched scheme, the developer has now applied to build 103 properties on the same patch of land.

The move has also led to the closure of the once-thriving car boot, which has operated on Sundays for the last 20 years on the site between April and October and has now stopped taking bookings altogether.

The planning application has angered residents, who say the fields were supposed to be the last 'green buffer' between a £400 million, 2,200-home 'super village' and St Peter's.

We can also reveal that in the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP), which earmarks land for development between now and 2030, the last revision over the summer led to the land being designated for extra homes.

Nearby resident Janine Rimell, 51, of Begonia Close, said: "This is right by the Ketch island and the A4440, which are congested enough as it is.

"Nobody around here thought the supermarket was a good idea, we've got a Tesco down the road.

"We were led to believe the car boot site would be the last bit of fields before all those houses (the 2,200) get built, now it appears we were led down the garden path.

"Where will all the building stop? It's ridiculous."

Councillor Roger Knight, who represents the area on Worcester City Council, said: "If allowed this development could add another 500 car moments per day, interrupting flow at a strategic point on the Southern Link

Road.

"This could erode any improvements resulting from the current road improvement scheme."

In a written objection Brenda Wheeler, from St Peter's Parish Council, said it would result in "no significant gaps as promised in the strategy, no green corridors of any worth, no regard for nature and the natural environment, just a great big slab of bricks and mortar".

In June last year developer Seven Capital launched exhibitions over the supermarket project, saying it would create 300 jobs, but no planning application was ever submitted.

Seven Capital has repeatedly refused to respond to requests for information on its supermarket project in recent months, but confirmed last night that it fell apart after Sainsbury's decided to pull out of a deal.

The firm said it would "soon be relaunching a website" to spell out the new scheme's benefits.

The homes bid, which is an outline planning application, contains space for 220 parking spaces alongside 29 one or two-bed properties, 51 three-bedders and 22 with four beds or more.

The application is out for consultation until Thursday, December 1.