PLANS for a new M&S supermarket in Ludlow have been slammed as "worse than the last".

Plans to build a new M&S food hall in the town's Eco Park were submitted in January, but were later withdrawn.

But now a new application has been submitted for a food hall in the Eco Park.

A planning statement accompanying the application said the planned unit would cover more than 2,000 square metres, and would generate "at least 70 new jobs" in the town.

But Ludlow's Councillor Andy Boddington has raised concerns over the design of the proposed supermarket, branding the new design "worse than the last", out of keeping with the landscape, and "like an oversized intensive poultry rearing unit".

Coun Boddington said the first design proposed for the supermarket was a "white urban box", and that the next stage of the design was much better.

"It mystifies me that it has been discarded for a gross design. A carbuncle rather than a welcoming store," he said.

A design and access statement accompanying the application shows the latest design features a four-peaked roofline with dark cladding, which Coun Boddington said looked as if it were trying to imitate agricultural buildings.

"It fails," he said, claiming that the new building is a "design failure that will stick out with a sore thumb".

"It is an oversized rustic interpretation of the sheds that house intensively farmed chickens and pigs. The very opposite of the M&S ethos on food."

Coun Boddington questioned the need for the pitched roofs, standing well above the ground floor of the building, voicing his support for the now superceded proposed second design, which had a single low peak, and which he said would blend in more easily.

The design and access statement said the proposed scheme has been designed to reflect and be more in line with the neighbouring context and surrounding building typologies, with the appearance routed to a more localised approach.

Eight members of the public have submitted objections to the proposals, while three have written in support to the council.

The application currently has a proposed determination deadline of January 12.