Four hundred new jobs will be created at a new superstore in Mid Sussex.

Asda is planning a new story in West Green, Crawley, after a five-year struggle to obtain a prime site in the town centre.

The superstore, to be build in spring 2003, will be incorporated in a development with three shops, offices, 18 three-storey town houses and 56 flats, of which 18 will be for social housing.

But Asda will have to wait six weeks to allow three property owners the chance to lodge a legal challenge in the High Court against compulsory purchase orders made against them.

The orders were granted to Crawley Borough Council on the three properties, which form less than half an acre of the eight-and-a-half acre site, when the owners refused to sell. They were granted by a Government inspector following a public inquiry.

The rest of the site was obtained by the council and its development partners, Gleeson and Hammerson.

The owners of the three properties in Spencers Road had entered into agreements with rival supermarket Tesco.

In his report, the inspector said: "It was only in early 2000 that Tesco appeared on the scene, when they realised a rival operator was seeking to compete with their nearby store.

"There is no evidence of any Tesco commitment to this site, a site which would compete with their own existing store. It is plainly a spoiling tactic."

The three properties are owned by John Gore, trustee of Brittingham Gore Retirements Benefit Scheme, Raz Kanji, chief executive of Swiftrebel, and Bernard Clarke. The last two owners lease their properties to several firms.

A council spokesman said they had offered to help the firms find other properties in the town.

Council head of property and construction Andrew Day said: "This is the first time we have sought to use compulsory purchase powers.

"It is quite clear the objections of the remaining landowners were just a spoiling tactic by Tesco and others to prevent Asda opening in Crawley."

He said trade had been taken away from the High Street and Queens Square when the County Mall shopping centre opened in 1992. Since then, everything had focused on the eastern side of the town.

He said: "This development will get the balance back and bring life back to the High Street, where we have spent £1 million on improvements"

Asda spokesman Mark Brown said opening in Crawley was good news for family shoppers.

There was no one available for comment at Tesco.