PLANS for a new ASDA superstore on Huddersfield ring road will deal a massive blow to town centre traders, it is claimed.

Kirklees councillor Andrew Cooper said the proposed store at Queensgate would compete directly with town centre retailers not only in food sales but on items such as clothes and electrical goods.

And retailer Tony Coletta, a member of the Town First lobby group already opposing plans for a massive Tesco store at Southgate, said the ASDA store would “double the problem” facing smaller traders.

Mr Coletta, who runs Occasions giftware shop in Victoria Lane, said: “The argument is just the same. Both schemes propose big stores outside the ring road close to very busy junctions. The ASDA scheme is a mirror image of the Tesco plan – and just doubles the problem.”

He said small town centre traders would suffer in an already difficult climate, adding: “You don’t have to be a retail analyst to know what the situation is – just walk around town and look at the shops.”

The Green Party’s Clr Cooper said he opposed both the Tesco and ASDA plans, adding: “I have heard ill thought-out arguments from the larger parties saying this is simply ‘healthy competition’ and they see no link at all between larger ring road supermarkets and a dying town centre.

“As the local council, Kirklees has a duty to protect our town centre businesses from large multiple retailers, who have a simple motivation of wanting to increase their share of the retail market and have no wider interest in the areas they serve.”

Clr Cooper said it was estimated that “only” 1.5% of the Tesco’s planned 80,000sq ft store would be given over to non-food retailing. However, even that “small” amount still represented a significant threat to local businesses because the store would attract large numbers of shoppers.

Clr Cooper said: “Labour MP Barry Sheerman opposes the Tesco’s development, but the big question is: can he persuade the Labour leader of Kirklees Council, Mehboob Khan, to drop the council’s deal with them?

“You would have thought that our Labour MP would be in a good position to influence a Labour-led council, but it would appear not as Kirklees appears to value its deal with Tesco to finance a new sports centre more than protecting town centre businesses.”

Clr Cooper said: “Ultimately we have to ask ourselves whether we want a Huddersfield town centre consisting of only poundshops and empty shop fronts.

“Every day, with every shop that closes, we seem to be getting closer and closer to that future.”

Steven Leigh, policy spokesman for the Lockwood-based Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said he greeted the ASDA plan with“cautious enthusiasm”.

He said: “Any new jobs for the town would be welcome, but we have to ensure that any further supermarket developments are sympathetic to the need of other businesses in the town.

“We do need the jobs and there is even an argument that more supermarkets will bring people into the town centre, but we don’t want to upset the delicate balance of providing a range of retail competition.”