BOLTON Council will have to pay out £8,500 towards the cost of fighting the controversial Dumplington "shopping city" go ahead.

Town hall chiefs had feared that they should have to share a much larger bill running into millions.

But they have now been told that the private sector will pay the largest share and councils such as Bolton £8,500. Angry planning and environment committee councillors hit out at claims made by Tory deputy leader Cllr Derek Shepherd in June that the costs could be around £2.5 million.

Labour Cllr Tom Anderton said: "You were scaremongering."

But Cllr Shepherd hit back: "At the time, we were concerned that the developers may have been awarded costs over the delay to the scheme caused by the challenge."

Chairman Labour Cllr Jack Foster said: "You are saying that we should not challenge anything." His Labour colleague Cllr Laurie Williamson added: "You have no bottle. We had the guts have a go."

Liberal Democrat Cllr Mrs Barbara Ronson added: "This money is a shop assistant's wages.

"It is going to cost a lot more now for us to compete against Dumplington."

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