THE COST to Forest Council Tax payers of defending moves by the Co-op to stop Asda coming to Cinderford is £125,000, it will be announced this week.

The Forest of Dean Council was landed with a legal bill after the Co-op successfully requested a judicial review against the council's decision to grant planning for the store at Steam Mills.

Last summer a judge agreed with the Co-op that there had been flaws in the way the council handled the planning application and overturned the permission.

Chairman of the council Cllr Norman Stephens (Ind, Newnham and Westbury) will "advise" the full council at its meeting tomorrow evening (Thursday) that the costs incurred by the authority in defending the judicial review were settled at £125,000.

The application was re-submitted to the council and passed by its planning committee in October.

The Co-op remains opposed to the proposed rival and Forest MP Mark Harper has written to the chief executive of the Midcounties Co-op to "explain why the Co-op has felt the need to block and obstruct every effort to get this much-needed new supermarket for the people of Cinderford and the wider Forest area."