Council spends £140,000 on Newport town stores schemes

More than £140,000 of public money has been spent dealing with supermarket applications in Newport in the last 12 months, a Freedom of Information Request has revealed.

Telford & Wrekin Council has spent almost £112,000 on the Sainsbury's scheme in Station Road, according to the figures released today.

More than £50,000 of that figure was spent carrying out a public consultation.

Meanwhile, £8,000 was spent on external legal fees to oppose plans to convert Mere Park Garden Centre into a Morrisons and £24,924 on a bid for a food store at Audley Avenue, including £20,159 in legal fees.

The council has also allocated a further £10,000 for High Court action to attempt to overturn a decision to allow Mere Park to convert into a Morrisons.

Councillor Andrew Eade, who made the FOI request, said the council had overspent while trying to engineer a £21 million land sale for the Station Road store.

But the Labour administration has accused Councillor Eade of 'playing politics'.

"Expenditure of public money on this scale makes it very clear how desperate this council's Labour administration is to build on the green fields surrounding Newport," said Councillor Eade.

Bill McClements, cabinet member for resources, said £83,721 was spent by the Conservatives under Councillor Eade on issues relating to Newport supermarkets.

He said: "In addition to this they approved £150,000 in their last budget to spend preparing the Station Road site for sale.