CHRISTCHURCH council has earmarked £60,000 for costs over a failed supermarket scheme.

At a resources meeting of the council last month, members agreed to allocate the funds to cover the costs of the appeal concerning the Beagle site in Stony Lane.

Both sides have not yet reached a final agreed figure.

A spokesperson for the council said: "The final settlement amount is still being negotiated with the applicant; until that negotiation has been completed the council is not in a position to say what the actual amount will be.”

They confirmed the resources committee had received the recommendation that the figure of £60,000 be set aside to fund costs for the Beagle application.

A planning inspector overturned Christchurch council's refusal for the Morrisons food store at the Beagle site in April.

And in granting the appeal, he also ordered the council to pay partial costs after he found the authority to have acted 'unreasonably'.

The money will be paid from general reserves.

Criticising the council for their decision, the inspector, Alwyn Nixon, said their reasons for refusal were unsubstantiated.

But just weeks after the permission was finally granted, Beagle Technnology said the plans for the food store on their site had been shelved.

The company had hoped the sale of the site to Morrisons would enable them to move to a new premises at Bournemouth Airport.

Managing director, John Taylor said at the time: “Given all the well publicised difficulties from the major food retailers in recent months, we are not wholly surprised.

“Naturally we are disappointed, not only because this means that our planned relocation is on hold, but also because the whole planning process has been very time-consuming and has cost Beagle and our development partners well over £750,000 to date.

“We have missed out on an attractive proposition and we now need to look at alternatives."

The council refused the application for a Morrisons store at Beagle three times over the years.