Council rules out further court action over Morrisons store for Newport
A legal fight over a supermarket that has cost Telford taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds was dramatically dropped today.
Telford & Wrekin Council will not make further legal challenges over a proposed Morrisons supermarket in Newport.
It leaves the way open for the supermarket to start work on land in Audley Avenue.
And it is a blow to a rival bid backed by the council for a Sainsbury's store on land it owns in Station Road, which it says would bring a cash windfall of more than £20 million.
Council officers had considered going to the Supreme Court in an effort to prevent the 33,000 sq ft Morrisons store.
But it has already challenged the proposed store in the High Court and the Court of Appeal, costing £133,000 in legal fees. And it also spent £277,000 at an initial planning inquiry that gave the scheme the go-ahead.
The council today insisted that its decision has no impact on its plans for the larger 50,000 sq ft Sainsbury's supermarket, which is due to go before a public inquiry either later this year or early in 2015.
Council spokeswoman Emily Knightley said it was decided not to appeal on planning issues relating to the Morrisons bid, including a demand the store should pay for road improvements.
She said: "This is a wholly separate matter from the planning application made by Telford & Wrekin for a supermarket on land at Station Road and has no direct impact on the planning considerations linked to the Station Road application, which has been called in by the Secretary of State for a public inquiry."
The council said it would keep its Sainsbury's application "under close review" to "secure the best possible value for the public purse".
Telford & Wrekin Council stands to make about £21 million from the land sale if the Sainsbury's goes ahead.
It was today unclear whether Morrisons will now progress with its store before a final decision is made on the Sainsbury's.
Retail experts have said that Newport is not large enough to accommodate both stores - and oppositon leader Councillor Andrew Eade today criticised the Labour administration for "playing fast and loose" with taxpayers' money.
He urged the council to abandon the Sainsbury's plans altogether, adding: "I welcome that at long last that the council's administration has managed to grasp the utter hopelessness of their legal case in trying to block a rival supermarket scheme."
