ASDA has said Lidl should not be allowed to knock down the Three Counties Hotel in Hereford to build a new shop because of traffic concerns.

The supermarket firms are locked in a battle about the plans, which would see the Belmont Road hotel demolished and replaced with a new Lidl supermarket, and there are also outline plans for a drive-thru coffee shop.

If plans are given the go-ahead by the council, the hotel would be demolished and replaced with a Lidl, with a right-turn lane added to Belmont Road to deal with around 2,500 two-way car trips every day. Foot and cycle paths would also be widened.

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But Asda, which has a big supermarket further down Belmont Road near Greyfriars Bridge, had previously criticised the plans – including by saying the hotel should not be demolished as it is currently a trading business.

Jigsaw Planning's director Katherine Sneeden, acting on behalf of Asda, said that would be against planning policy and she also argued that Lidl said it is a "deep discounter", but she argued this was no longer the case.

Lidl has since hit back, saying the Competition Commission, Inspectors and Secretary of State have expressly recognised that limited assortment discounters, such as Lidl, offer particular benefits of quality and value.

In a third reason for Asda's objection, she said loss of trees was also unacceptable.

Now, transport expert Charlotte Green, from firm TPS, has reviewed Lidl's transport assessment and pointed out what it believes to be major problems with it – and how the planning application should be turned down on highway grounds.

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She said delivery lorries had an "increased risk of collision" when turning left out of the site and there was not enough detail about how delivery vehicles would safely leave. TPS also said there was no analysis about how lorries would safely move around the supermarket's proposed new car park.

Ms Green also criticised a lack of cycle parking, with only 12 of the required 24 spaces provided, and traffic data used in Lidl's assessment of its impact was during the early part of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Despite that, assessment show the proposed site access junction is expected to operate over capacity, and more detail was needed about how the new shop would impact the A49/A465 junction and the roundabout to the southwest of the site, near Belmont Tesco.

There has been fierce resistance to the plans from locals, with dozens of objections citing reasons from traffic woes on the major road to the fact Hereford doesn't need another supermarket, with Tesco and Asda already nearby.

Herefordshire Council's planning department is yet to make a decision on the plans, but consultation is now closed.