Approval has been granted for the first large-scale supermarket in a Mearns town.
Aberdeenshire Council took three hours and forty minutes to grill applications for four different stores in Stonehaven.
In the end proposals for a supermarket, hotel and restaurant on the Ury Estate were approved on a delegated grant.
The issue of a supermarket in Stonehaven has split opinion in the community, with many in support and others fearful for the impact on the town centre.
Councillors voted 27 to 18 to back the plans.
It came despite some councillors arguing approval would be a breach of the emerging Aberdeenshire local development plan.
