Waitrose in Malvern is making another attempt to get its delivery hours extended.

When the Edith Walk supermarket was given planning permission in December 1997, one of the conditions was that deliveries had to be between 7am and 8pm on Monday to Saturday and 10am to 6pm on Sunday.

In May last year, the company was allowed to make deliveries from 6am to 9pm for a six-month trial period.

But when it applied last month to make the extended hours permanent, planning officers at Malvern Hills District Council refused.

The decision was made because concerns about noise had not been overcome.

Back Lane resident Geoff Field wrote to tell the council about noisy deliveries early in the morning.

Now Waitrose has submitted a new application, once again seeking permission to make deliveries from 6am to 9pm.

Gill Smith, of Waitrose, said the company wanted to ensure its shelves were stocked with fresh foods throughout the day.

She said: "Waitrose aims to be a good neighbour in areas where we trade and we have a variety of measures in place to minimise noise.

"This includes closing our loading bay doors when we are making a delivery, turning reverse bleepers on lorries off and using modern refrigeration equipment designed to reduce noise.

"We also time deliveries carefully to ensure that we do not have one vehicle waiting while another is making a delivery."

Mr Field said he would be looking at the new application.

Commenting on the noise-reducing measures, he said: "With the best will in the world, this sort of thing becomes very difficult to enforce after a while."

Mr Field also said it would mean heavy lorries using Graham Road early in the morning