Lancashire win Old Trafford case

Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes expressed his relief yesterday after a High Court ruling found in their favour in the face of a legal challenge to the redevelopment of Old Trafford.

The £70m plans were scrutinised in a judicial review last week after Derwent Holdings, the owners of the nearby White City Retail Park, launched a last-minute bid to block the joint planning application with Tesco, which had been approved at the expense of its own application to build a food store.

Cumbes described the review as "make or break" for the club and said: "We would have been in serious financial difficulty if we had lost. The future of the club was at stake."