Lawyers step into supercasino row
25th February, 2008
The ongoing row over the government's U-turn on large-scale casino developments looks set to step up a gear this week, as lawyers working for Manchester city council prepare to enter the fray.
Since coming to office last summer prime minister Gordon Brown has made no secret of the divergence of opinions between himself and his predecessor over the regeneration schemes, which would have paved the way for Las Vegas-style supercasinos across the UK.
However, after winning a five-day reprieve ahead of the government's official rejection of the scheme, city officials in Manchester are now preparing to launch legal action to retrieve the £250 million of investment they claim to have lost due to the U-turn.
The city had won a contest to host the country's first supercasino last year and officials say the consolation measures outlined by communities secretary Hazel Blears - which focus on a range of alternative regeneration proposals - fall well short of adequate compensation.
"The casino would have brought over 3,000 jobs at no public expense," one unnamed senior council source told the Times. "The things that Blears is going to announce probably would have happened anyway and they will create at best a few hundred jobs."
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