A Darlington supermarket will have to be sold if Morrisons engineers a successful deal to take over the Safeway chain.

Morrisons has been given the go-ahead by the Competition Commission to set its cap at rival Safeway, while Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury have been ruled out.

The fact that Morrisons is mainly a Northern chain is likely to have worked in its favour when the commission made its ruling, but it will have to dispose of 53 stores around the country to prevent it having a monopoly in some locations.

At one time, the company had three stores in Darlington, when it put one over Asda by stepping in to acquire the former Co-op in Neasham Road, since sold on to Matalan.

It retains the North Road supermarket and another at Morton Park while Safeway has a large Grange Road store and a smaller one in Cockerton.

A spokesman for Morrisons confirmed: "Darlington is one of the places where a store will have to be disposed off. It could be a Safeway store or one of our own."

A Safeway spokeswoman added: "It is all speculation at the moment because Morrisons has yet to put in a bid to take over Safeway.

"But if they did, one of the four stores would have to be sold."

In Barnard Castle, Safeway this week gave assurances there were no plans to close the store which is expected to become a Morrisons if the deal goes through.

* See leading article, page 20.