Salford Council postpones Tesco land sale

PLANS for a controversial new 120,000 sq ft Tesco megastore at Pendleton in Salford have had to be put on hold after Salford City Council agreed to postpone its planned sale of the land on which the store would sit.

Tesco had gained approval for the project back in October to build a huge new store next to Salford Shopping City. At the time, Tesco said that the store would create 600 jobs. Work was due to start on the project early in 2011 with recruitment of staff beginning in the Summer.

However, Salford Shopping City’s owner Salford Estates, which had opposed the application for the store, had threatened an injunction to prevent the sale of the land as it believed the deal was short-changing taxpayers. It launched Judicial Review proceedings against the council following its decision to grant planning consent for the project.

City council leader John Merry recently confirmed that the deal would net the council around £16m but Salford Estates argued that independent valuations of the land have valued it at between £26m-£33m.

A spokesman for Salford Estates said: “Through our ongoing legal action we are determined to show that local people have been short-changed by tens of millions of pounds and that a better scheme can be delivered. 

“From start to finish, the way the Council has gone about this is very peculiar and the people of Salford deserve the reassurance that their decision makers are acting in their best interests.”

Salford City Council leader Cllr John Merry dismissed suggestions by Salford Estates that the delayed land sale has thrown the project into disarray.

“The owners of Salford Shopping City have made allegations that the city council is not receiving market value for the site through the sale to Tesco and have notified us of their intentions to seek a judicial review.

“We disagree with their view and have therefore commissioned an independent valuation of the site to determine the market value.

“Salford Estates know that it is not our intention to complete the sale to Tesco before the end of January 2011. However, this will not affect the proposed timetable as this always meant the sale would complete later in the year, to ensure the terms of the contract have been met.”