A COUNCIL has battled to slash nearly £500,000 damages and costs it was ordered to pay to a pair of greengrocers in a dispute dating back to the early 1980s.

Salford City Council was told to hand over £485,000 to Bolton businessman Geoffrey Torkington and his partner, Irene Darby, at the High Court in Manchester in February.

At one point, the dispute turned embarrassing for the council when Mr Torkington sent bailiffs into Salford Council offices in Swinton over the debt.

Astonished workers watched the bailiffs arrive with two large lorries and refused to leave until finance officers electronically transferred nearly £500,000 to a nominated bank.

But yesterday, the local authority was at London's Court of Appeal trying to reduce the amount awarded.

The dispute centred around a shop in Cleggs Lane, Little Hulton, which Mr Torkington, aged 52, leased from Salford City Council in September 1981.

He opened the Sod Hall mini-market as a general grocery store. Just weeks later, another grocer's opened in a council-owned shop on the Amblecote estate, even though - according to barrister Alan Goursey QC - the council had promised the nearby shop would only be used as a chip shop.

And the pair were even more angry when it was granted an off licence - even though the council had again said that would not happen.

Then, in 1986, a third general grocer's opened in Cleggs Lane a short distance away. The Sod Hall mini-market business closed in February, 1988, after trade declined.

Mr Torkington and Mrs Darby stopped paying their rent in December 1985. The council launched court proceedings against them in 1988 but a counter-claim brought by the couple eventually proved successful. Yesterday, Neil Berragan, for the council, said Judge Michael Kershaw QC, who made the damages award in favour of Mr Torkington and Mrs Darby after a county court hearing, had "erred in law".

He said the judge wrongly held that the business would have been profitable had the council acted as it had promised.

The barrister argued that, even under the rental agreement the council had with the couple, May Hill Avenue would have become an off licence within six months.

The barrister added that it was likely their shop would have then been forced to close anyway, and argued £140,000 damages awarded for loss of the chance to make profits should be substantially reduced.

But Mr Goursey said that had the council not reneged on what it promised, Mr Torkington and Mrs Darby would have been left with a local retailing stranglehold and raking in the profits.

He said Judge Kershaw had taken into account a range of factors when deciding the award - and had made the right decision.

The judges hearing the case - Lord Justice Potter, Lord Justice Mance and Lord Justice Wall - will give their judgement at a later date.