Plans to build a new Lidl in Essex have been rejected amid fears it have a negative impact on a green area of land.

The budget supermarket has seen its bid to build a new store off Chelmer Village Way, Chelmsford, thrown out despite plans to buy the area of land in question off Essex County Council.

The site includes a Neolithic and Bronze Age enclosure and Anglo Saxon grave.

County Hall’s plan to see the land was conditional on Lidl gaining planning permission to sell alcohol for a store of not less than 1,410 sq metres and 140 parking spaces.

Lidl has one other supermarket in Chelmsford – off Princes Road in Moulsham.

The plans come around three years after the sale of the same piece of land to a care home developer fell through.

This was also due to concerns around the impact it would have on open space and the effect that this would have on the character and appearance of the area.

Landspring Limited had appealed Chelmsford City Council’s decision to turn down a development for a 70-bed care home in Springfield Lyons.

But Chelmsford City Council repeated some of those concerns – the development site and adjacent land form a Great Crested Newt habitat.

Within the nearby Buttercup Montessori site is a pond known to contain newts together with the collection of ponds in Bronze Age settlement to the north‐east.

The city council also highlighted the importance of the site as a “green lung” and helping to provide a sense of space in a largely urban area.

Members of Chelmsford Council’s planning committee voted unanimously against the plans on Tuesday.

Cllr Lardge said: “The loss of the open space is an insurmountable problem with the application and that it is important protect that open space.”