John Lewis store gets go-ahead from council

A £100 million John Lewis department store will open in Birmingham after winning planning chiefs' approval – despite a row with retail giant rivals House of Fraser and Argos.

A total of 650 jobs will be created at the store, which will form the centrepiece of the transformed New Street station in 2014.

It will be the anchor store for the renovation of the ailing 1960s-built Pallasades shopping centre. The city council's planning committee gave development the go-ahead yesterday.

The venture was opposed by upmarket rivals House of Fraser, which has been based on Corporation Street for 40 years. The firm's bosses claimed the council would breach its own policies if it allowed John Lewis to move into New Street.

The city's development plan said major new retail development should be at the Bullring or Martineau Galleries off High Street.

And Argos even went to the High Court in a bid to halt the scheme.

Argos' store at the Pallasades shopping centre will be demolished to pave the way for the four-storey John Lewis. Lawyers said the plans were illegal because they differed from an original scheme in 2007.

Lawyers added the store had believed it would be able to carry on trading when the John Lewis was first mooted four years ago. Argos tried to block the final stage of a compulsory purchase order at London's High Court.

The court, however, dismissed the claims Birmingham Council behaved unfairly, leaving the planning committee able to grant approval.

Committee member Councillor James Hutchings said: "I very strongly welcome this important scheme. John Lewis will improve the quality of Birmingham's retail offer and encourage more people to shop in the city centre."

The 250,000 sq ft store will contain four floors of retail, each approximately an acre in size. It has been designed by Foreign Office architects, the creative team behind the New Street station redevelopment.