A SUPERMARKET has come under fire for ignoring planning rules and going ahead with changes to its car park without permission.

Asda, in North Shoebury Road, Shoebury, applied to reduce the number of parking spaces by 50 in order to make the remainder bigger and to take away two of four pedestrian walkways.

Members of Southend Council’s development control committee turned the application down.

The committee said it was worried about safety and that it wanted to reduce the risk of customers parking on the nearby roads during busy shopping periods.

Despite not having planning permission, Asda appears to have removed two of the walkways and is in the process of levelling off the whole car park. There are just two remaining walkways to cover the entire vast car park.

Shoebury Tory councillor Roger Hadley said he was shocked to discover the work had begun despite being thrown out by the council.

He said: “This is very dangerous as shoppers with children now have to walk in the road.

“There is also an issue with possible flooding as as the amount of drainage has not been increased and there are now no kerb lines to direct the water to the drains.

“I’ve spoken with council officers and they are concerned about the new surface as it doesn’t allow water to sink in to it.

“The car park slopes towards the store so could get flooded.”

Mr Hadley added: “Other concerns are that this will become one gigantic open space , boy racers will soon start using it for racing their cars when the store is closed.

“I told Asda if they are going to leave it open like this they are going to have some sort of barrier to stop the boy racers. It will make a lovely race track.

“I don’t think they realise what a problem it will be. They said they will have a meeting with me so we shall have to see what they say.”

Southend Council is investigating. A spokesman said: “We have received an enforcement complaint regarding an alleged breach of planning control at the site and we are investigating accordingly, including contacting ASDA.”

Asda was approached for a comment but was unable to provide a response by the time the Echo went to press.