Biddulph Town Council has approved to buy land from Sainsbury's on Station Road for £4,000, following a "long and torturous process".

The authority has also agreed to pay the supermarket's legal fees for the sale, up to a maximum of £5,000 plus VAT.

The council has been working for several years to develop the land near the supermarkets for local residents, with discussions taking place to make improvements to its community garden.

The garden was originally larger, but it was partly taken over by the development of the supermarket and the Meadows Way bypass, leading to disruption to some of the gardens' footpaths and planting beds.

Although the council already owned the community garden area, Sainsbury's still owned part of the land within the authority's planned development area.

Proposals for the development have previously included having separate areas of the gardens for floral displays, fun and play, quiet and relaxation, and a memorial to those died in Biddulph's mining industry.

Discussing the purchase at a meeting of the council last week, Cllr Jim Davies said: "We have been chasing this land for several years now, and I wrote to Sainsbury's several times expressing our interest in this land.

"Eventually we had a response and since then [the town council's Chief Officer] Sarah Haydon has had to battle to keep the process going. Now we have the opportunity to seal this deal to make the land a complete entity and a more viable use of space."

Cllr Kevin Jackson added: "It's been a long road and it's been difficult. The next stage is to start thinking about what we want to do with that land, but I'm glad we've got to the end of the tunnel."

While Biddulph's mayor Cllr John Jones added: "It has been a long and torturous process, and some people might think we're paying too much, but we need to get it in our control and we shouldn't delay any further."

Councillors then voted to approve the purchase of the land from Sainsbury's.