A town council voted on Monday to oppose planning applications submitted by a supermarket giant.

Royston Town Council’s planning committee opposed each of the four planning applications submitted by Tesco for its Express store, currently under construction in Market Hill.

The applications included building six security bollards at the front of the store, installing plant equipment on the first floor including ventilators, placing a cash machine at the front of the store and creating an illuminated shop front.

Councillors felt that the bollards would make the pavement too narrow and also said the plant equipment could create noise that would be harmful to local businesses and residents.

Plans to build an ATM machine was also criticised for potentially creating traffic problems and the illuminated shop front was deemed to be not in keeping with the rest of the town.

Instead the council proposed that double yellow lines be placed outside the shop, and called for a closer inspection of the plant equipment and its placement to establish its best location and the amount of noise it will generate.

Cllr John Davidson said: “This should be turned down. The building is in a conservation area and shouldn’t have bollards. There are no other shops in Royston with them.

“When I looked at the application it says some of the plant equipment runs between 8am until 11pm and some of it 24 hours a day. I took the report by the conservation officer with a pinch of salt. If they are installed and cause more noise than originally estimated what can we do then? It will be too late for anything to be done by then.”

Chairman of the planning committee Lynn Berry, who was the only councillor to vote in favour of the application, said: “I believe we should propose to have something guaranteeing to the local shop owners that there would be no noise problem.”

Cllr F John Smith then proposed that the council oppose the application on the grounds of noise and disturbance to local people and “because this application should have been submitted with the original documents”.

Campaigner Clive Porter, who has always opposed the construction, said: “Even if these machines are fairly quiet to start with they soon deteriorate which is why I urge you to reject this application.”

The application, along with the town council’s views, will now go to North Herts District Council planning control meeting on April 24 when district councillors will have the final say.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “This is a developer led scheme and there is already consent for a retail store. We would like to take the retail unit and we think our store would be popular with customers as it would offer a wide range of products in a convenient location and create around 20 jobs for local people.”