WAITROSE has submitted revised plans for a store on Wimborne Minster's cricket ground.

And East Dorset District Council (EDDC) has hired the nearby Allendale Centre in a bid to squeeze in hundreds of people expected at an extraordinary meeting of its planning committee on September 29.

The revised application provides a ramped footpath between Rowlands Hill and the store's entrance, redesign of the car park layout, and revisions to the layout of the Rowlands Hill/Lewens Lane roundabout.

A further round of public consultation has begun with EDDC inviting people to make their voices heard before September 8.

Opinion in the town is split on the proposal, with some welcoming the store, and others opposed to the development of the central green space.

Malcolm Angel, the chairman of Wimborne Minster and District Chamber of Trade, said a recent survey of members showed "overwhelming support" among shopkeepers for a Waitrose store.

Traders would join townsfolk in lamenting the loss of the cricket pitch, said the traders' leader, but urged opponents of the supermarket to be realistic.

"The cricket pitch is not protected as far as we know. If it is not used for a quality shopping development, the likelihood is it will be used for houses, making Wimborne Minster a dormitory town for Bournemouth and Poole," he warned.

But Philip Atlay, the chairman of Keep Wimborne Town Green, said the site enjoyed protection as a conservation area and as designated open space in EDDC's local development plan.

Housing could not generate sufficient economic benefit to the town to allow planners to overrule the safeguards of the site's special environmental status, said Mr Atlay.

"We are not opposed to a supermarket, or to Waitrose. We are opposed to the use of that site. If it is no longer leased to the cricket club, we would like to see it bought by the town," he added.

Mike Hirsh, the council's head of planning, said technical issues from an earlier application had been overcome, leaving councillors free to concentrate on its material impact.

To see the plans, visit dorsetforyou.com