LOCAL councillors described it as “a black day for Blackwood” after plans for a new supermarket that would have created hundreds of jobs were rejected by planners.

Retailer Morrisons was earmarked to open a store at the empty Blackwood Gate Retail Park, but the local authority’s planning committee refused an application for a supermarket to be based there on Wednesday.

The site’s owner Linnell Investments had been looking for a new tenant for the main 46,000 sq ft unit since Focus DIY went bust last year.

It currently has planning permission for retailers of bulky items such as furniture, garden items and white goods to be based there. But, after approaching over 200 businesses, none were interested.

Linnell received interest from Morrisons and applied to Caerphilly council to change the site’s use to include food retail. The company pays £45,000 a month for security and insurance at the site and hoped a store like Morrisons would encourage other businesses to move into the five other empty units.

However, planning committee members voted against the change of use after being recommended to do so in a report.

This listed reasons for refusal including the fact the site is in the council’s local development plan for bulky goods retail. The report says changing the planning consent would “undermine the opportunity for such retail provision” in the town.

Other reasons were that there is a large vacant foodstore on the town’s High Street, Blackwood Retail Park is not as well served by transport links and it would draw trade away from the town centre.

Blackwood councillor Nigel Dix said: “It is a black day for Blackwood on the jobs front.

“Unemployment is at a record high and the chance to bring hundreds of jobs to the area was turned down. Are Caerphilly council not interested in Blackwood? “ Town councillor Andrew Farina-Childs said: “If people express an interest in bringing jobs here, we should grab it.”

The site may now be demolished, with Linnell spokesman Howard Moss saying: “No bulky goods retailer wants to go there, so we will have to regro