A CONSORTIUM of traders has won the right to appeal to the High Court against a rival shopping centre's expansion.

But centre bosses and the local authority, which is accused of illegally approving the development, vow it will proceed as planned.

Prudential Property Investment Managers Limited, which owns most of Washington town centre; Realm, operator of Royal Quays Outlet Centre at North Shields; and The Peterlee Partnership, owner of Peterlee Shopping Centre, have joined forces to block plans by Dalton Park, in Murton, east Durham.

The outlet shopping centre, which offers designer clothing at reduced prices, opened in April and is already proving popular with the public.

In November, Easington District Council authorised a ten per cent increase to the 100,000sq ft size limit imposed on the site by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, in 2000.

In March, it agreed to a further ten per cent expansion, taking the limit to 120,000sq ft.

The consortium says that the decisions were made without any formal applications for planning permission, and are therefore illegal.

Its application for a judicial review has been accepted, and a hearing will take place in the High Court later this year.

Bob Mogford, director of shopping centre investment at Prudential, said: "We regret that litigation in this matter has proven necessary, but we were left with no real alternative."

A spokeswoman for ING Real Estate, which operates Dalton Park, denied that the council had acted illegally.

She said: "We cannot understand, other than for purely commercial reasons, the actions of Realm, The Prudential and The Peterlee Partnership in seeking this judicial review, which we will strenuously resist.

"As far as we are concerned, the council and the local community are behind us. It is just competitors that are obviously feeling the pinch trying to make things difficult for us."

Dalton Park plans to use the extra space for five units, and also has outline planning permission for a second phase of restaurant and leisure facilities, on a further 150,000sq ft of land.

The spokeswoman denied that this was now in jeopardy.

"This has no bearing on the second phase," she said.

Janet Johnson, Easington council's director of regeneration and development, said it was confident of a positive outcome to the review.