Richmond'S traders are pressing for protection again-st the likely impact of a cut-price supermarket which some fear could prove the last straw for struggling businesses in the town.

The town used to boast a significant commercial centre, with people from the surrounding villages making the trip in to shop.

However, over the past decade, Catterick Garrison has become the biggest British Army base in Europe and new facilities have been springing up to reflect its role.

Shopkeepers blame a retail park - including a new Tesco superstore - for taking trade away from Richmond, despite the controversial construction of a competing Co-Op store on the town's Friary Field.

Their worries were then compounded by the collapse of the Mercury Bridge in 2000, which severed the main road link with the Army base, deterring for months many garrison-based families from making the two-mile trip to town.

Another blow came when Richmondshire District Council announced it was considering a move out of Richmond to the new business park at Colburn.

The latest appeal for help follows confirmation that the German chain, Aldi, also has plans for a new supermarket in Catterick Garrison.

Both Richmond Town Council and the Richmond Business and Tourism Association have written to the district authority urging councillors to take the impact on the local economy into account before making a decision.

Traders have also requested that, should Aldi's proposals be given the go-ahead, the firm should be asked to contribute towards the preservation of Richmond's struggling business community.

However, neither request has won much support among the local authority's planning officers.

A report due to be considered by the district council's new-look environment committee next Tuesday points out that there are no policies in place which allow the council to comply.

The council's chief planning officer, Peter Featherstone, said an assessment commissioned when another cut- price store was proposed nearby claimed it would not have had a significant impact on local trade.

In his report, Mr Featherstone writes: "The previous assessment concluded, firstly, that there is a qualitative need for a deep-discount food store in the catchment area and, secondly, that in view of the lack of such a store within the area at present, the development of a new discount store at Catterick Garrison would only have a minimal impact on other centres.'