COUNCIL taxpayers could face a bill of up to £25 million to help pay for the Western Sector development, the Bucks Free Press can reveal.

And we understand that the future of the entire £90 million plan to transform the centre of High Wycombe could be in doubt.

Wycombe District Council will have to compensate supermarket giant Tesco for the loss of its store in the town which the council compulsorily purchased after a High Court battle. The council plans to demolish the store to make way for the new development.

Tesco has already rejected an offer of a basket store in the new development which it says would be too small.

Deputy district council leader Alex Collingwood (Con, Marlow North), accused Tesco of trying to get 'their pound of flesh out of the council' and said any compensation bill may land on the taxpayers' doorsteps.

He said the council had a cap, or limit, on its financial commitment to the project drawn into its contract with its partners in the development MAB UK.

He refused to say what the limit was but warned the scheme would have to be reviewed if Tesco's claim pushed it over that level.

The Free Press understands from other sources that the cap is £25 million in total for scheme. It is unclear how much of this has been earmarked for compensation.

The money is made up of £17m from the council's capital receipts and £8m in land value.

Cllr Collingwood said: 'The council taxpayer will get back income from the scheme but the problem is the level of income may not be proportionate to what they put in in the first place.

'We are talking millions of pounds but there is a specified level and if it goes above it the council may not necessarily go ahead with it but it's a sizeable limit at the end of the day.

'We will develop Wycombe in some form but whether it's the existing scheme is another matter. It will be Tesco's fault if we can't go forward with the existing scheme.'

The plan includes two major department stores, a Warner Village nine-screen cinema, large library, bus station and space for 35 more shops.

If Tesco and the district council cannot agree a figure for compensation, the final decision would be taken by a Land Tribunal in possibly 18 months.

Cllr Collingwood said that in order for work to start on the scheme before the tribunal's decision the council would 'have to be sure that the land tribunal would come down in our favour and we would need to ask the developers for a guarantee to cover any excess if it went over our budgetary level.'

He said any final decision would need to be taken by the full council but hoped the scheme could be completed by Easter 2003.

The council's contract with MAB UK sets out its commitment to buy all the relevant pieces of land to make sure the development can go ahead.

The council is being forced to pay compensation to the Go Ahead Group in the region of between £1 million and £5 million to re-locate Wycombe Bus Station to make way for the new development.

There are also other leases and land the council has to purchase.

A spokesman for Tesco said: 'Our position is that we are looking for a fair settlement that shows the value of our business bearing in mind it's through no fault of our own our business is going from the town.'

The spokesman said the size of the store offered in the development was not comparable to the present premises.

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