A last-ditch attempt to block plans for a bigger Tesco store in Ilkley has been rejected by the Secretary of State.

Town MP Kris Hopkins asked for Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, to call in the renewed planning permission conditionally approved by a Bradford Council committee last month.

But planning minister, Nick Boles, has said the plan to build a bigger supermarket off Mayfield Road and Railway Road will not be called in.

The Department for Communities and Local Government has also told Bradford Council planners the Secretary of State felt the Tesco proposals did not involve a conflict with national policies, have a significant long-term effect on economic growth or have significant effects beyond the immediate locality.

Opponents of the new store, who pinned their hopes on Government-level intervention, reacted with dismay.

In his letter to Mr Hopkins, Mr Boles said the the call-in policy makes it clear the power would only be used very selectively.

“With this in mind, the Tesco proposal has been carefully considered against the published guidelines and I am satisfied that the application does not raise issues of the wider strategic or policy nature envisaged in the call-in policy.”

Mr Hopkins said: “I am disappointed, but, as a general principle, it is difficult to dispute the fact that such decisions should be made at a local level and in the best interests of local residents.

“If Bradford Council had acted on behalf of the people it is supposed to serve, it would have rejected this application when it had the chance.”

Brewery Road resident John Saltmarshe, who has been a long- time opponent of the supermarket plan, is calling on Tesco to explain why there has been a delay in building the store, after the firm promoted it as being for the benefit of Ilkley people.

He said: “It’s having such an effect on everybody because it’s been hanging over us for a long time. We have an empty hole in the ground.

“It’s coming up for seven years since this started.”

Ward councillor Martin Smith (Con, Ilkley), plans to stay vigilant over the drainage conditions attached to the scheme.

“I was disappointed, particularly when the store is for the whole area, and not for Ilkley,” he said. Conditions of the original planning permission, which expired in September, have yet to be signed off by Bradford Council.