A settlement has finally been reached in a lengthy and costly row that blew up after the government rejected plans for a Safeway superstore on land bought from the Duke of Northumberland. The Duke has agreed to buy back at an inflated price 12 acres of land he sold to the company five years ago. And the local district council has agreed to pay Safeway's legal fees ­ believed to be about £1m. The settlement is the end of a dispute which dates back to 1995 when the Duke sold the land on the outskirts of Alnwick, in Northumberland. The district council had already given outline retail planning consent. But there is already one Safeway store in the town centre and residents complained that a second one was unnecessary. The case was referred to the deputy prime minister John Prescott who ruled against the scheme. The decision is believed to have been only the third of its kind ever taken by the Department of Environment. The case was then referred to the High Court and, after a lengthy and costly process, the judges upheld Prescott's decision. But the rejection of the scheme led to Safeway seeking to recover its costs ­ a figure they estimated at £4.5m. The cost was more than twice the annual council budget and major projects including the building of a sports centre had to be put on hold until a settlement was found. Now the Duke's company, Northumberland Estates, has stepped in to buy the land back at an inflated but undisclosed figure. An Alnwick Council spokesman said: "When people said it would bankrupt the council, it was an exaggeration, but we certainly faced significant problems." {{NEWS }}

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