COMMENTS have flooded in to the Daily Echo's website after a report of a revised planning application from Waitrose for a store on a cricket ground in Wimborne.

The supermarket giant has made changes to a plan submitted last October for a new store and riverside park on the pitch adjacent to Rowlands Hill and Hanham Road.

Planning chiefs say amendments to the design and access of the building will allow councillors to judge the application on its effect on the town when it goes before a special meeting of East Dorset District Council's planning committee on September 29.

Opinion in Wimborne is split down the middle, with most traders backing the scheme, and some residents' groups opposed to it.

The split is mirrored in comments posted in response to the story on the East Dorset section of the Daily Echo's website.

Dorsetman1986 suggested that store chiefs at Waitrose should buy the Crown Mead premises of the town's Somerfield store.

"If Waitrose build on the cricket pitch, they'll put Somerfield out of business in Wimborne, and there will be one shop on our green and another abandoned next-door," he said.

Phil from Poole backed the suggestion of Dorsetman1986, adding that a proposed takeover of Somerfield may force the issue.

"I understood that if the Co-Op buys Somerfield, as planned, around 120 Somerfield stores are expected to be sold off. So why doesn't Waitrose hang on and buy the Somerfield store?" said Phil.

But Thomas from Wool argued that "unattractive" iron railings put the cricket pitch's greenery "off limits" to the public.

"How much better to have an attractive modern building alongside which sits in an attractive area of open space set alongside the river which is useable by all the residents of Wimborne," said Thomas.

l To add your comment, visit bournemouthecho.co.uk.