Plans to extend the Asda supermarket in Shipley could hurt smaller traders in the town centre, according to objectors.

The supermarket giant has put in an amended application to build a mezzanine floor extension, create new access to the store and increase the hours of car parking from two to three hours.

A separate application has gone in to extend the car parking deck to create 127 more spaces.

An application originally submitted last year has been amended to include the extra hour of parking.

The Shipley Planning Panel has been recommended to grant permission to both applications when it meets at Shipley Town Hall tomorrow subject to several conditions and an S106 legal agreement.

Asda has said the extension will create jobs in the town and will help the vitality of the town centre.

But those opposing the development argue it would allow the retailer even more of a monopoly in the town centre.

Councillor Martin Love (Green, Shipley) said: “This is basically the same application but they have modified it slightly in that they have included in it an extension of the permitted hours for the car parking.

“We have no objection to that addition because we think this would obviously be to the benefit of other traders.

“But I can’t help thinking that it’s just a sweetener thrown in to deflect from the criticism of the application as a whole, which we have said all along will create a town within a town.

“It will allow Asda to have even more of a monopoly within the retailer traders in Shipley and obviously this is of the detriment to the other smaller shops and the market traders.”

Philip Bartram, Asda’s property communications manager, said: “It’s going to create employment in Shipley. Our store is a town centre store, it helps support Shipley town centre, it’s very popular with local people and we have parking there which helps support the vitality of the town centre.”

A report to the Shipley Planing Panel states two petitions had been submitted, one against and one in support.