A COFFEE shop has been given permission to legally trade in the Worcester, despite dismay from inside the Guildhall.

Caffe Nero has been allowed to continue operating inside the Shambles after Worcester City Council decided it would lose an appeal if it stopped them from operating.

As we reported previously, the site was originally earmarked as a cold food store rather than a coffee shop.

The city council previously turned down a request from city trader Roger Yeomans, who opened the Marbles Coffee Shop above Caffe Nero, to trade on the site, before the national chain started to trade without permission.

Councillor Barry McKenzie-Williams said: "I shall vote in favour of letting Caffe Nero trade - not because I changed my mind but because this is a situation where nationally-powerful organisations can have their own way if they have enough money and can make enough noise about it."

Coun Francis Lankester said: "Unlike my colleague I will maintain the principal of opposition to this - this shows how upset people get when there is retrospective permission given, or a perception given that Caffe Nero has tumbled in under our planning policy.

"Caffe Nero has got a team of lawyers who trawl through planning policy and find a way through and they did it - the most fundamental point is that there was another person who wanted this, and we told him no and he accepted that.

"This company did not accept that. I for one do not admire the way this was done."

However, Worcester Mayor Stephen Inman added: "The problem is planning a compromise and this committee should not feel guilty that it has to go down the road of accepting it."