A DISCOUNT supermarket company has launched its second attempt to set up shop in Malvern.

German chain Lidl wants to convert the former eurohaus premises in Worcester Road.

A previous application for the same site was thrown out by Malvern Hills District Council last summer.

The scheme had aroused a great deal of opposition from local residents, who gathered more than 800 signatures on a petition resisting the plan.

Much of the opposition focused on the area's traffic problems, which protesters said the scheme would make worse.

They feared that the traffic would be forced off the main Worcester Road into rat-runs through residential roads behind Malvern.

"The traffic problems have not improved in the time since Lidl made its first application," said Tom Falcon, of Chillerton Court, who was one of the petition organisers.

Jams to the Link

"In fact it's as bad as ever and it jams all the way through to the Link."

Mr Falcon said that opposition would be just as strong now as it was to the original plan.

The first plan called for the demolition of the existing building and the erection of a new supermarket.

But the latest scheme is only for change of use of the existing building, resulting in a store with a retail floor space of about 455sq metres.

The plan will be considered by Malvern Hills District Council in due course.

Eurohaus closed its doors in January 2000, when the site was closed to Lidl.

The first planning application was submitted in March that year, but the decision on it was not made until June 2001.

After the refusal, a Lidl spokesman reaffirmed the company's determination to set up shop in Malvern.

"We're going to push as hard as we can to get this one to go ahead," he said.

Lidl declined to comment on the latest plan.