SLOW worms could scupper a planned Sainsbury’s supermarket for Ledbury.

The presence of the limbless lizards on the New Mills Industrial Estate is a major reason why Herefordshire Council is recommending refusal of the application at a crunch meeting on Wednesday.

Members of Herefordshire Council’s planning committee will be told the development of the site would lead to “insufficient habitat”

for the rare reptiles.

Sainsbury’s had proposed moving the slow worms, a protected species.

But planning officer Roland Close says in his report: “The submitted application fails to identify a site.

“The submitted planning application cannot be approved without a suitable receptor site having been identified.”

A legless lizard, anguis fragilis is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981.

The act states it is an offence to “kill, harm or injure them in any way”.

Mr Close also says in his report the proposed landscaped “buffer zone” between Bronte Drive and the Sainsbury’s site does not form part of the planning application.

Sainsbury’s was set to enhance the “green corridor” between properties in Bronte Drive and the store with landscaping.

However, it would not be owned by the supermarket giant, and therefore cannot be enhanced by the applicant. The report says: “No legal mechanism has been demonstrated by the applicant to secure the landscaping”.

Mr Close was also concerned about Sainsbury’s flood risk assessment, saying that it contained “inadequate information to demonstrate to the local planning authority there would not be an increase in flood risk.”

A stream divides the site from New Mills Way.

Mr Close said Sainsbury’s has not submitted a “completed planning obligation” to show how financial contributions from the company would lead to “a sustainable transport infrastructure”

to boost cycle and pedestrian links to the town centre.

Outside environmental considerations, Mr Close considered the superstore could affect the viability and vitality of the town centre and, because of this, “adversely affect the character of the Ledbury Conservation Area” – the heart of Ledbury. He was also concerned the building of a superstore on the New Mills Industrial estate “would result in the loss of high quality employment land”.

The meeting will take place at the Shirehall at 10am.