YET more questions are being asked over the delayed development of the long-awaited shop at Jennett’s Park and the council’s planning chief is not ready to throw in the towel.

Residents have become frustrated after work on the site stopped suddenly around two months ago – seven years after they first moved into their new homes on the estate.

They were promised a neighbourhood store would open within a year but have instead had to drive more than a mile to the nearest supermarket.

At a full Bracknell Forest Council meeting last Wednesday, Labour leader Mary Temperton said: “I am asking this on behalf of every resident of Jennett’s Park: what is the council doing to make the developers honour their commitment to provide a shop on Jennett’s Park as promised in the planning agreements?”

Planning permission for the convenience store was granted in 2012 but the project has been blighted by construction delays.

Work that had started earlier this year ground to a halt in April and Bracknell MP Phillip Lee contacted the Jennett’s Park Consortium – made up of developers Persimmon Homes and Redrow, but failed to get a full answer to explain the delay.

Executive member for planning and transport Cllr Chris Turrell, said: “There has been no response from either planning developers, which is unhelpful and disappointing.

“Once planning permission has been granted the council’s powers are limited.

“Our main course of action would be for us to stop the main building but that would lead to a perverse result.

“Houses are needed and the development needs to be finished.”

He added: “Residents are being denied a convenience shop they were promised and that is causing them hardship. A shop is a focal point of the community.

“It is in the interests of many people that this is sorted out conclusively and speedily.

“I will continue to chase them until they deal with this issue with the urgency it requires.”

When asked by Cllr Temperton whether Persimmon Homes and Redrow are building elsewhere in the borough and whether limitations have been imposed, to avoid “this mess from happening again”, Cllr Turrell said steps are being taken to “tighten up on what exactly is in planning applications”.