WE'RE delighted - and not a little relieved - to join former Mayor Derek Prodger in welcoming a Government inspector's rejection of Asda's plans for a superstore alongside the River Severn in Worcester.

Few people have opposed the point that it would have looked monstrously out of place in this historic area.

However, we are surprised that, in damning Asda's plans, the inspector has let it appear as if he's backing Sainsbury's ambitions for the Westside.

He sees St John's as a town in its own right, and reinforces the city council's view that the Swanpool proposal wouldn't harm the so-called village in the city's vitality and viability.

We've yet to hear evidence to convince us that's the case.

Before St John's campaigners throw up their hands in horror, it's also worth remembering that the Government inspector's remit was Asda.

Sainsbury's plan will be decided on its own merits, not on the basis of a comparison drawn with a similar development across the river.

At the moment, those merits would appear to rest solely on whether the size of Sainsbury's scheme is simply too big for the area targeted. Within that, traffic management is the main concern.

And, likewise, we mustn't be deceived by the suggestion that, while Asda wouldn't increase the miles driven by motorists in the city, Sainsbury's would reduce them.

That simply says that a number of Westside residents travel to St Peter's, Warndon or Malvern to shop.

The crucial comparison, then, would seem to be this -- would the extra traffic generated by a Sainsbury's be an acceptable trade-off for the drop in traffic elsewhere?

The answer can't come soon enough.