Darlington'S two Safeway stores will be up for sale to another supermarket chain following Monday's takeover by Wm Morrison.

Morrison's, which has two stores of its own in the town, celebrated the merger by making over 300 price cuts in the bigger Safeway supermakets.

The Office of Fair Trading said the deal could only go ahead if it divested itself of 52 stores, six of which are in the North-East, by the end of the year.

The surplus stores - four of them existing Morrison's - must be sold to another food retailer as a going concern to maintain local competition.

Neither Tesco, Sainsbury or Asda would comment, saying Morrison's had yet to announce prices for individual stores.

Real ale drinkers in Darlington were among the first to know that the Victoria Road store was not going to become a Morrison's.

CAMRA member Ross Chisholm, who enjoys the Safeway beer selection is less than impressed with Morrison's beer, albeit keen prices..

He is recorded in the recent Darlington Drinker magazine as going to the top, writing to Sir Kenneth Morrison, asking him to incorporate Safeway's range into the enlarged company.

"Your own overseas beer offer lags behind, concentrating on pilsener-type beers and lagers," said Mr Chisholm, in a blunt way he hoped the Yorkshire millionaire would appreciate.

Sir Kenneth wrote back accepting the comments, revealing: "I am afraid that Victoria Road is one that is required to be disposed of under the terms of the merger.

"We would have liked to retain this store as it has great potential but the Competition Commission ruled otherwise."

Morrison's will start its own store conversion programme in August, which will take nearly three years. It plans to convert three stores a week.

A spokeswoman for Safeway said the hope was that any retailer who bought the stores Morrison's sold off, would also retain the staff.