Tesco chief exec Terry Leahy has admitted the retailer’s planning application for a controversial Tesco Express store in his home village was “littered with errors”.

Tesco has been forced to resubmit the planning application to convert a former Harvester pub in Cuffley, Hertfordshire, into a convenience store.

Pressure group Keep Cuffley Rural claims that the data contained in a traffic study that went hand in hand with the planning application massively underestimated congestion in the village.

A subsequent study found that up to five times as much traffic passed through the village than claimed. “Anyone familiar with Cuffley congestion could see it was incorrect,” said David Holland, a Keep Cuffley Rural committee member.

Holland claimed the group saw the mistakes in the Tesco report.

However, a Tesco spokesman said the retailer’s own consultants had spotted the mistakes in the submission, which were the result of a faulty automatic counter. “The new study was not substantially different,” added the spokesman.

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