LUDLOW is to get its first 24 hour petrol station.

Planners had deferred the application when it came before them in March.

But the way is now clear for work to start on the fuel station that will be open 24 hours a day everyday of the year.

It will also include a convenience store and a coffee shop.

According to the planning application the scheme will create up to 20 new jobs, 10 of them full-time and eight part-time.

An adjacent grade II listed former 19th century tollhouse will also be converted into a cafe as well as providing residential accommodation.

The petrol station will be built on the site of a former abattoir that is now used as a brick and paving merchant. It will sit on a triangle of land between Bromfield Road and Coronation Avenue close to Ludlow School.

An earlier application on behalf of The Mead House Pension Scheme was withdrawn in October 2013 following a number of objections including concerns from the Environment Agency that there could be contamination of an underground aquifer.

But planners say that the scheme has been significantly amended and that the concerns have been addressed clearing the way for them to recommend approval.

The site is planned to include an island of petrol and diesel pumps, a convenience store and 22 parking spaces. These will include spaces for visitors to the convenience store and the adjacent tollgate cottage that already has planning approval to open as a cafe and coffee shop.

The approval will allow the sale of fuel 24 hours a day, but there will be no sales from the convenience store between midnight and 6am.

There will be parking places for motor bikes and cycles as well as cars and vans. Two spaces will be specifically set aside for drivers with disabilities.

Partly submerged tanks will hold up to 45,000 litres of fuel and these will be set on a concrete slab with a retaining bund in case of any spillage or escape of fuel. The tanks will be one metre above the water table satisfying concerns about the risk of groundwater contamination.

There has a number of concerns from local residents including the impact of 24 hour opening upon people living in the area because of traffic, noise and light pollution.

Ludlow Town Council and some people in the area also had misgivings and these included road safety and the close proximity to Ludlow School.

But planners say that national guidelines provide a presumption in favour of approval and that rejection of the scheme would leave Shropshire Council at risk on appeal or a judicial review.

This could leave council tax payers left to pick up a large bill.