Plans to build a new Asda store in a Norfolk town have been scrapped after councillors withdrew controversial plans to sell recreational land for the supermarket development.

Asda had hoped to build a 23,000sq ft store on Kings Head Meadow in Wymondham and town councillors had initially passed resolutions allowing the council-owned meadow, home to Wymondham Town FC, to be developed as an Asda, but the councillors voted to rescind the resolutions at a meeting in the town earlier this month.

Asda spokesman Chris Martin said the meadow was the only site in the town the retailer was interested in developing and since the council u-turn, following a long campaign against the plans by Wymondham Asks Why (WAW) action group, no alternative sites had been considered.

He added: 'As far as Kings Head Meadow was concerned, our intention was to see through that development. We weren't pursuing any other options at all.

'We think it is a missed opportunity for Wymondham because the investment that it would have brought to the town would have helped other shops in the town which would have benefitted from our presence.'

The WAW campaigners opposed the use of Kings Head Meadow for a supermarket development because the site was greenfield land and home to a children's play area.

In return for the Asda development, the football club would have moved to a new Asda-funded ground at Ketts Park.