10 August 2012 Last updated at 13:04 ET

Sainsbury's Crosby store plans dropped

Sainsbury's said it would concentrate on improving the current store in Crosby

Plans to build a new Sainsbury's store in a Merseyside town have been dropped.

The supermarket giant had planned to build a new store three times the size of the current one in Crosby, leading to opposition from some residents.

It submitted proposals for the site in Moor Lane to Sefton Council in 2010, but they were turned down.

Sainsbury's said the plan was no longer economically viable and it would improve the village's existing store.

Peter Harvey, vice chairman of campaign group A Better Crosby, was opposed to the new store plans, but had been working with Sainsbury's on revised ones.

'Oversized' store

"A Better Crosby had a petition supported by 7,500 people to say the plans that Sainsbury's had were completely out of keeping with Crosby," he said.

"It was a real oversized store that they were looking to locate in the heart of our community.

"We opposed that, we were successful with that campaign, but that's not to say that we see this latest development as a victory, it is far from it."

He added: "It's a disappointing day for Crosby, we've been working very, very hard and closely with Sainsbury's over the last year or so, and it looked like we were making progress over the design of the new store.

"The one stumbling block remained the size. They said the store had to be 50,000 sq ft and we said that was too big for a town the size of Crosby."

Sue Willcox, head of town planning at Sainsbury's, said: "If our initial plans had been approved the new store would have been open this autumn.

"However, we had to go back to the drawing board and unfortunately it is no longer possible to achieve an economically viable scheme."

She added: "We are disappointed, as we are sure many in Crosby will be, that the opportunity our investment would have created to regenerate the village and provide valuable jobs has been lost.

"I would like to thank all of our supporters through the planning application process."