A new phase in the store wars saga has begun in Marlborough with Sainsbury’s applying for a judicial review of the planning permission given to Tesco.

Tesco received the go-ahead to build a food supermarket on the Salisbury Road Business Park from Wiltshire Council’s eastern area planning committee on April 29.

But Sainsbury’s has bought Wiltshire Council’s depot next to the Tesco site and wrote to the council on April 28, the day before the meeting, to ask that it defer a decision on Tesco’s scheme until it was ready to present its own plan.

The council had already deferred consideration of Tesco’s plan once and was concerned that it would be in breach of planning regulations to defer it again. A comparison report between the two plans had been prepared and was considered by councillors.

Sainsbury’s is saying that this was unfair and the comparison report did not reflect well on its scheme.

Now Wiltshire Council has received a letter from Sainsbury’s solicitors advising that they are seeking a judicial review.

The letter said Sainsbury’s is disappointed its plea for both store plans to be considered together went unheeded by the council.

Melanie Chiswell, regional corporate affairs manager for Tesco, said: “We are confident that our development will go ahead, but this legal action might delay it. We are keen to proceed with our plans as soon as possible. We wanted to get the store open for Christmas but that doesn’t seem likely now.”

Lisa Farrell, who started up the campaign group Marlborough Matters to support the Tesco application, is furious. She said: “People are suffering in this town and I don’t know why Sainsbury’s is doing this. It is just prolonging the suffering, especially for older people.

“They were looking forward to shopping in their own supermarket by Christmas and now that’s not going to happen.”

Former mayor Peggy Dow, who first invited the big four supermarkets to come to the town, was saddened by the latest news. She said: “Why do they do these things? We invited Sainsbury’s right at the beginning and it only showed an interest when Tesco came to our aid.

“This is going to disappoint everyone who wanted to see a new supermarket by Christmas.”