IN A move which will have even the most hardened of bureaucrats scratching their heads, a council has slapped a compulsory purchase order on its own land.

Chester-le-Street District Council has decided to "buy" thousands of square metres of its land to sell to a supermarket chain for development.

The authority already has nominal ownership of the prime town centre land, because it has occupied and taken responsibility for the land for decades.

However, it has to be registered as absolute owner of the unregistered strips of land around the South Burns area of the town before it can sell it to Tesco as part of a £12m town centre redevelopment.

George Mansbridge, head of economic development, said the authority had been in extensive discussions with the Land Registry for more than a year about the problem.

Many of the bits of land, which include grass verges and unadopted paths around the railway viaduct, are not registered at all.

Often, original ownership was unclear because old maps and documents dating back 100 years were not clearly marked and the council had assumed upkeep for decades.

Mr Mansbridge said: "Particularly in historic towns like ours, land ownership can be something of a patchwork quilt.

"It's amazing how all these verges and so on add up to quite a sizeable area of land.

"Sometimes the problem has come from when they were drafting orders of ownership at the turn of the century.

"They were using pieces of charcoal or whatever to mark the maps and they just weren't anything like as accurate as they are today."

The land to be compulsory purchased, for no cost, includes 2,555sq m with two footpaths at the railway viaduct at South Burns, 200sq m on the south side of North Burns, 1,100sq m near the railway viaduct intersection at North Burns, 100sq m on the south side of Pelton Fell Road and 165sq m on the south side of North Burns.

Anyone wishing to an object should contact the Secretary of State of Local Government, Transport and the Regions at Wellbar House, Newcastle, before February, 11.

The plans are available for viewing at Chester-le-Street District Council Civic Centre, in Newcastle Road