LAND seized by Bolton Council for the town's newest leisure development was worth nearly DOUBLE the maximum they were prepared to pay for it.

A Lands Tribunal has ruled that Tudor Properties Ltd and McGrath and Walsh should be paid £2.27 million compensation after Bolton Council compulsorily purchased their land at Watersmeeting to make way for a leisure scheme which includes the new Virgin Cinema.

Bolton Council had valued the land at between just £250,000 and £1.3 million but the increased payment will not be picked up by Bolton tax payers - the scheme's developers THI will foot the bill plus the council's legal costs.

The level of compensation has angered the leader of Bolton Council, Cllr Bob Howarth.

"The principal landowner must think it is Christmas ten times over," he said.

"They have been treated incredibly generously and it quite shocks me."

But director of Tudor Properties Noel McGrath countered: "I should have got more." He claimed that, while he will be satisfied with the level of compensation, Bolton Council interference by compulsorily purchasing the land cost him the chance of making a greater profit.

"I had my own planning permission for an identical scheme," said Mr McGrath.

"If the council hadn't interfered I would have made a lot more money and it wouldn't have needed a penny of City Challenge money."

At a Lands Tribunal hearing in December Bolton Council had argued that Tudor Properties and McGrath and Walsh should not benefit from the improvements made to the surrounding area as part of the City Challenge scheme.

"It was THI who put the value into the site and not the owner," said Cllr Howarth. "It does seem unfair to me that the major owner of that site can sit back and let everyone else do the work and then pick up the prize.

"Without THI investment the land would still be in a mess."

The level of compensation is also expected to frustrate other smaller land owners in the Tonge Valley who sold out to THI for much lower payments.

And Cllr John Walsh, deputy leader of the Tories on Bolton Council says he plans to ask some tough questions when the compensation issue is raised at a Land and Property sub-committee meeting at the end of this month.

"There are some serious questions to be asked about how the council arrived at their values," he said.

"I want to know what it does in terms of land values in the rest of the valley."

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