A planning application by discount supermarket chain Aldi to open a store on the outskirts of Abingdon has been put on hold.

The German retailer wants to persuade the Vale of White Horse District Council to overturn a ban on food shops at the Fairacres retail park.

But Aldi and Fairacres owner Mays Properties withdrew plans for the chain to take over a unit just days before councillors were due to consider them.

Fairacres director Richard May said he hoped the application would be resubmitted in a couple of weeks.

He said the district council had not given him long enough to respond to concerns raised in a report to councillors where officers recommended that the application was refused.

District council spokesman Victoria Tilley said a report by consultants assessing Aldi’s case was handed over in plenty of time.

She said: “This report gave a clear indication that there was no need for an additional food store on the outskirts of town and therefore the recommendation from planning officers would be to refuse the application.

“For a planning application such as this, we're required by the Government to make a decision within 13 weeks of the application being submitted.

“If the application had not been withdrawn and had been considered and determined by the committee, we would have met this target.”

Mr May said: “The local authority did not publish the information necessary in time for us to assess the information and reply to their concerns.

“We were forced into a situation where we either accept a refusal or withdraw the application.”

Traders in the town centre are fighting Aldi’s application.

They say they are already suffering because of shops closing and traffic congestion putting off shoppers.

Shopkeepers have handed an 81-name petition to the district council.

Mr May said there were no units in the town centre big enough for Aldi to take over.

Aldi was controversially given planning permission to open a 1,200 sq m store off Botley Road, Oxford, last June.

The supermarket giant’s plan for a 1,700 sq m store, next to Toys R Us, were rejected by the city council in 2007 because of flooding concerns raised by the Environment Agency.

Some local residents opposed the plans as they feared Aldi’s opening would increase traffic on the already busy road.