Sainsbury’s is celebrating a court win over Tesco in a long-running tug of war over a site in Wolverhampton on which both retailers planned a new store.
The Supreme Court ruled that Wolverhampton City Council acted wrongly in 2008 when it approved a compulsory purchase order to buy land owned by Sainsbury’s to let Tesco develop a store on the site.
Most of the land at the Ragland Street site in Wolverhampton belonged to Sainsbury’s, although Tesco owned nearby land that the council also wanted to regenerate.
Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled by a 4-3 majority that the development of the two sites should have been dealt with separately, overturning a High Court judgment in Tesco’s favour that the council was entitled to consider the nearby scheme before issuing the CPO.
Sainsbury’s property director John Rogers said he was "delighted" with the outcome of what had been a "long and arduous" battle.
“As majority landowner, owning 86% of the site, it is only right that we should be given the chance to regenerate the Raglan Street area,” he said.
"We hope Tesco will not stand in the way and now allow us to progress our plans, which will provide greater consumer choice for shoppers as well as local job opportunities."
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