A NEW Sainsbury super market in Coleraine, Co Derry, faces further delay after a judge gave the go ahead yesterday for a judicial review of planning permission. Mr Justice Kerr said in the High Court that it was with very considerable misgivings that he granted leave to Boots the Chemists to challenge the decision by the Department of the Environment (DoE).

"I strongly suspect that this application is a challenge to the merits of the planning decision which masquerades as an application for judicial review," he said.

Mr Justice Kerr granted leave on the grounds that Boots had an arguable case in regard to the DoE's "apparent ability to reconcile differing views about the impact the store would have".

He strongly rejected a suggestion in court papers that the Department may have been influenced by a threat of legal proceedings if it did not reinstate planning permission.

"That is a very serious allegation and should only be made if there is evidence to sustain it," said the judge.

"It seems to me that there is simply no evidence and the fact that a report appeared in a local paper provides a slender basis on which to make such a point."