Store seeks cashback after planning upset
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Your support makes all the difference.A COUNCIL is facing a crippling compensation claim after agreed planning permission for a new superstore was overturned following a campaign by villagers.
Alnwick District Council faces a pounds 3m claim from Safeway after it was ruled that the council was "grossly wrong" in granting permission for a superstore. The council, in rural north Northumberland, collects only pounds 1.5m from its 31,000 council tax payers, and has a total annual budget of pounds 13m.
The decision by John Prescott, Secretary of State for the Environment, to refuse permission for the superstore could have wider implications on the future purchase of land with outline planning permission.
Safeway is set to claim the difference in the price of the land, on the outskirts of Alnwick, before and after the decision. Land with outline planning permission is of greater value to developers.
Mr Prescott's decision marks a victory for villagers in Alnwick. The civic society, town council and chamber of trade all opposed the store.
Peter McIlroy, of Alnwick Civic Society, said: "We have never been able to understand how the council came to be wriggling on this particular hook.
"Alnwick is a market town, a Safeway superstore would have destroyed the town centre. The council may face a compensation claim - but this will be peanuts compared to the cost if the town centre closed down."
The ruling reads: "The council was grossly wrong to grant permission when the clear evidence was, and is, that it would adversely affect the vitality and viability of Alnwick town centre."
Alnwick District Council's chief executive, Lawrie St Ruth, said: "I'm astonished with this decision. Why Alnwick has been singled out by the Government for this rarely used and heavy-handed interference defies comprehension." Any compensation claim would not affect services, he added. The council is to take legal advice on a possible challenge to the decision.
A Safeway spokesman said: "We are very disappointed with this decision. We do not accept that the store would have had a negative effect on the town centre - quite the contrary.
"This store would have prevented the leakage of trade away from Alnwick. In the long term, Alnwick will continue to decline.
"We will be seeking compensation from the council. We paid a price which reflected the outline planning consent.
"This has severe implications when purchasing land, planning consent is now not the concrete base it once was.
"Contracts may now have to have a revocation clause in them."
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