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Manchester to sue government over supercasino

2008-02-26 08:07:18

Manchester city council is preparing to sue the government following the decision not to grant the city a permit to build the UK's first supercasino.

Despite the possibility of millions of pounds in compensation, Manchester city hall chiefs are gearing up to recover £250 million of lost investment through the courts.

A senior council source told the Times that the supercasino would have created as many as 3,000 jobs at no cost to the public purse.

The source was also unimpressed with communities and local government secretary Hazel Blears' promise to look at different ways of regenerating east Manchester.

"The things that Blears is going to announce probably would have happened anyway and they will create at best a few hundred jobs."

Manchester has hired John Howell QC, also known as the 'assassin', to advise councillors on the legal challenge.

Last summer, prime minister Gordon Brown made it clear that he did not think building a supercasino in east Manchester was the best way to regenerate the area.