THE supermarket giant interested in bulldozing a city school and opening another food store has said plans are still in the pipeline, despite the withdrawal of a planning application.

Tesco withdrew its original planning application for a supermarket on the site of Christopher Whitehead High School in St John's, after discovering it was likely to be refused by councillors.

Richard Petrie, Tesco's corporate affairs manager said: "I must stress that this is only a temporary measure so that we have further time to address key issues in connection with the development proposals.

"In addition to increasing the retail offer available within the district centre, our scheme will bring significant benefits to St John's and local organisations including wide-ranging educational, sporting and social benefits, enhancement of existing facilities, and will address many of the key highways safety issues that currently exist within the locality.

"Thus it is only right that we withdraw this application to allow further time for all these benefits to be fully explored and presented to the public.

"We will be staging public displays explaining the full implications of this development and its benefits and will be announcing details of the public consultation programme in the near future."

The supermarket giant submitted the planning application to Worcester City Council in May 2002 and signed an agreement with Worcestershire County Council to build a state-of-the-art replacement school.

The application was due to be considered by the city council's planning committee on Thursday, November 7, and were then to be discussed by the full council at a special meeting on Tuesday, November 12.

Yesterday, the Evening News revealed that planning officers had a number of concerns about the application.

Principal planning officer Peter Yates exclusively told the Evening News that officers supported refusing the plans on several grounds.

These included shopping impact, traffic problems and other detailed design issues.

They were also concerned about the impact that the loss of the school would have on the community.

"Since May, Tesco has been negotiating with both the city and county councils and local organisations to develop a scheme that will enhance the facilities available within St John's district centre," said Mr Yates.

"This is only a temporary measure so we have further time to address key issues in the development plans.

"The decision to withdraw the current Tesco food store application doesn't affect the county council's proposals to relocate Christopher Whitehead High School."