MANCHESTER will take the government to court if it scraps the plan for a supercasino, we can reveal today.

The city council is prepared to seek a judicial review on the decision - causing the government political embarrassment by throwing into doubt plans for 16 smaller casinos around the country.

Manchester was chosen by an independent panel as the best site for Britain's first supercasino - beating bookies' favourites Blackpool and the Millennium Dome.

The locations were backed by the House of Commons, but rejected by the Lords by just three votes.

Tony Blair, who was then prime minister, vowed to `put right' the peers' decision.

But then Gordon Brown took over at No 10 and announced a review - led by Communities Secretary and Salford MP Hazel Blears - on whether there are better ways of regenerating east Manchester.

Mr Brown is known to be no fan of a major extension of gambling and is believed to have approved briefings earlier this year that supercasinos were `dead in the water'.

Yet earlier in the year, Mr Brown, when Chancellor, said on a visit to Chorlton: "I voted for it (Manchester's bid) and I want to see it go through. We have to resolve this."

Town hall chiefs believe they have won the argument by proving that only a supercasino would create thousands of jobs for local people at no cost to the public purse.

Strategy

But they privately fear Ms Blears' review, due in the next few days, could still give Mr Brown an excuse to scrap the project.

The M.E.N. understands that if this happens, council bosses will challenge it through the courts.

The council would accept any alternative strategy put forward by Ms Blears' report - and not take the legal action - if it created a similar number of jobs for local people. But they are not convinced one exists.

An independent report found the supercasino complex would create 3,500 jobs, with 3,300 available to low-skilled workers from the east Manchester area.

No alternative use - such as shops, housing, or office development - would create more than 450 jobs for local people, it found.

Ms Blears told the M.E.N. in June, when she was running for the deputy Labour leadership, that the supercasino should go ahead.

"It will provide jobs and regeneration and we should just get on with it," she said.

But we can reveal that Ms Blears' team has not even visited the proposed supercasino site in the deprived area of Beswick. Council chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein said an `open ended' invitation for Ms Blears to visit the site had not been taken up. And he challenged the Blears team: "This development would create an extra £1bn in 10 years for the Manchester economy.

"The challenge for the government is to demonstrate, if that is wrong, just how it is wrong."

The government has given private assurances it wants to press ahead with the 16 smaller casinos.

It is understood Manchester would argue that doing so - while scrapping the supercasino - would breach the Gambling Act, which called for an even spread of new casinos.

It would also point out it never had the chance to fight for a small casino because it went for the supercasino licence instead.

Ms Blears was unavailable for comment today.

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