TOWN councillors in Amesbury are to start pushing for new supermarkets on out-of-town sites, to cater for hundreds of families moving into new estates being built around the town.

The move comes in the wake of the planning permission given to Amesbury's existing Co-op supermarket to build a store on the Redworth House site in the town centre.

Now that the long-running battle to get a new supermarket in Amesbury is over, councillors agreed last week to turn their attention to providing facilities for people living just outside the town.

There were mixed feelings at the council's July meeting that the Co-op had won the battle with Safeway to build the new town centre supermarket .

There was talk of "a lack of competition" and suggestions that, because of this, shoppers would head for Salisbury, where there was a better choice.

Cllr Vernon Smith said many Amesbury people felt Salisbury district council was only interested in maintaining the viability of Salisbury's shopping centre and were prepared to satisfy government quotas for new housing by "dumping hundreds of people in Amesbury" with no interest in giving them shops to go with their houses.

But Cllr John Haywood said that, now that the requirements for town-centre shopping had been satisfied with the Co-op deal, planners had no reason to turn down attempts to open new supermarkets on the edge of the town and he said the proposed new village at Boscombe Down was one such site.

Cllr John Turner said Amesbury's centre of gravity was "moving inexorably up the hill towards Boscombe Down" and that people living there are in real need of shops.

Cllr Fred Westmoreland said there were plenty of suitable sites around the edge of the town and the council should now start pushing for more retail outlets.

Mr Westmoreland said: "It is only with more shops that we can attract more people into our town."

He said the existing Co-op store would be too small to attract a second substantial food store into Amesbury once the new Co-op opened and there was no other site of sufficient size to accommodate a large store.

He said: "Competition and an increase in foodstore provision can only be affected through an edge-of-town or out-of-town location."

Mr Westmoreland said that, during the local plan inquiry, the inspector had only recommended deletion of a medium-sized foodstore on Porton Road, Amesbury, because at the time it was believed Safeway would open a second store in Amesbury.

Councillors unanimously supported his suggestion that the council recommend the district council make provision for a new medium-sized foodstore, either it Porton Road or on another out of town site.