A PROTRACTED battle between three of the country's leading supermarket chains over an out-of-town store in North Yorkshire was finally settled yesterday.

Safeway has won approval to leave its town centre store for new premises on the outskirts of Northallerton, in a development which will create 30 jobs.

Hambleton District Council's development control committee voted by 11 votes to five to give the go-ahead for the 40,000 sq ft development, on the site of the former No Frills DIY shop in Willowbeck Road.

A spokesman for Safeway said: "We are very pleased that we are going to be able to bring improved food shopping facilities to people in Northallerton.

"This will help increase employment and the attractiveness of the town as a whole."

Rivals Tesco and Somerfield lodged objections, stating that there was no need for another large supermarket in the town.

The decision marks the end of a six-year battle by Safeway to build the store.

Previous applications by the company were refused by the council during 1996. A scheme was approved in 1997, but was quashed when rivals Somerfield, which has a store opposite the proposed site, obtained a High Court ruling against the development.

A spokesman for Somerfield said: "Regrettably, this application has gone through. We did oppose it on the grounds that it would have a detrimental impact on other traders, including ourselves."

The company said it was confident the development would not affect its business in the long-term.

"Competition inevitably brings benefits to customers," she said. "We view this as a challenge."

Existing buildings on the Willowbeck Road site will be replaced with a car park of up to 260 spaces, with the store itself built in the north-eastern corner of the plot.

Jim Turnbull, head of Northallerton Chamber of Trade, said the result would help clean up the north end of the town.

"That end of the town certainly needs developing," he said. "It has been an eyesore and a blight on that end of Northallerton for a number of years.

"It is just a shame that we have lost another food retailer out of the middle of the High Street. We will just have to adapt."