AN Edwardian nurses' home is standing in the way of a multi-million-pound scheme to build a Derby city centre supermarket, a planning inquiry heard.

The city council wants all options for the future use of Devonshire House to be explored before permission is given for it to be demolished.

It is on the site of the former Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, which NHS chiefs want to develop as the location for a new Morrisons store.

The council has been accused of being "unrealistic" by hospital officials over its stance on Devonshire House.

At the start of the inquiry into the development yesterday, they also said the authority's case was "wholly without merit".

Derby's hospitals trust called for the hearing after councillors did not make a decision on its plans for the site, in London Road.

As well as the store, the proposals include new homes and housing for the elderly.

But the council told the inquiry its concern was for Devonshire House – a locally-listed building more than 100 years old.

Derby City Council has said it has "no objection" to the demolition of a pre-First World War building on the site of the former Derbyshire Royal Infirmary – if no alternative could be found.

But councillors have said Derby's hospitals trust must first demonstrate that it would be "unrealistic" to retain Devonshire House as it redevelops the land.

Built around the turn of the 20th century to accommodate nurses, Devonshire House would have to be demolished as part of proposals to build a supermarket on the site.

Hospital bosses have also applied to create housing, a café, restaurant or pub and offices on the land, between London Road and Osmaston Road.

But, at a planning inquiry to discuss the plans, Hugh Richards, representing the authority, said: "The concern of the council is that the appellant has not demonstrated that Devonshire House cannot be converted to a viable and sustainable re-use.

"The council accepts that a supermarket is a necessary part of a viable, and therefore deliverable, mixed use scheme on the appeal site.

"The issue for the council is whether the appellant has demonstrated that there is no other location on the appeal site for the supermarket that will deliver the mixed-use regeneration scheme which the council supports in principle."

But Robert Griffiths, for the trust, said: "The Devonshire House site has been identified as the optimum site for the retail component. To suggest that it be moved to a less favourable location in order to preserve Devonshire House is a totally unrealistic argument."

Hospital bosses called the planning inquiry last year after the city council's planning committee failed to make a decision on the proposals for the site.

Councillors heavily criticised the plans by the Derby Hospitals NHS Trust and said they would be "blamed for a generation" if the proposals were allowed to go ahead in their current form – raising concerns locally important buildings would be lost.

Officers at the council had recommended the plans be approved, subject to an agreement on the level of financial contributions to improve the area.

But, instead, the committee put off making a decision and asked the trust to reconsider the plans without the supermarket.

The trust then lodged its appeal against that postponement. Both sides will now have to justify their thinking at the inquiry and before the planning inspector Phillip Ware.

Mr Ware will then make a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government over how the plans should proceed.

But, at the opening of the hearing at Derby Conference Centre yesterday Mr Griffiths said he questioned the value of Devonshire House.

He said: "This cannot be a good reason for stopping the development. Devonshire House's intrinsic architectural value has been seriously compromised over the years. It is a recently locally-listed building of average quality and significance.

"To elevate its status to a level which prevents highly beneficial development is very bad planning. It is a wholly disproportionate reaction by councillors both against the advice of their officers and logic."

But the hearing heard how the planning committee met after the appeal had been lodged and it had resolved that, had councillors been able to, they would have refused the application.

Mr Richards said: "The council's case is that the demolition of Devonshire House will cause a loss of local identity and character and have a detrimental impact on the townscape of the area."

He said that, after councillors deferred the decision, the trust decided to lodge the appeal rather than "engage with the members".

But Simon Chadwick, managing director of the trust's agent, Signet Planning – who appeared as a witness at the hearing – said the appeal had been made "reluctantly".

He said this decision was based on the comments made by the councillors at the planning meeting and interviews made to the press afterwards. Mr Chadwick said: "The view we reached once we heard the discussions was that there was no prospect of getting members to change their minds."

The hearing, which is expected to last three days, continues today.