SUPERMARKET giant Tesco is set to pay out around £30,000 compensation to local residents

more than five years after it opened in Prestwich.

The handout, which is to be divided between 30 claimants, is for a depreciation in the value of their properties caused by extra traffic generated by the store.

The announcement of the payouts comes just weeks after the store announced controversial plans to expand further.

And the timing of the offers, which range from a few hundred pounds up to £3,000, has been branded "ironic" by some residents.

Mrs June Van Hecke, of Willow Road, has accepted an offer of £1,500 but said: "After being approached by a surveyor we put a claim in and haven't heard anything since 1998 which was a letter stating the claim was being handled by Tesco's solicitors.

"It seems more than coincidence that the offers of compensation come just after an application has gone in. The timing seems ironic."

Mrs Van Hecke said she couldn't put a figure on the suffering caused by the "constant traffic" near her house.

She added: "I feel somewhat aggrieved that we have had to wait more than five years before receiving any acknowledgement that our lives have been adversely affected by the building of Tesco. "What's more my two sons face redundancy from Sainsburys in Prestwich, which I believe has had business taken away from it by Tesco and is now closing."

The residents' compensation has been handled by Wirral-based chartered surveyor Mr Edward Kelly who said the claims derived from an agreement by Tesco to indemnify the local authority against any claims which arose from the disruption caused by alterations to Bury New Road.

Mr Kelly said: "Around 30 people have been offered compensation on grounds that they had experienced a depreciation in the value of their property caused by noise, vibration or fumes resulting from a highway that has been altered.

"It works out at an average of £1,000 per claim."

He said of the affected roads, Willow Road, Stanhope Avenue, Highfield Road and Bury New Road itself, the amount of the claim depended on the position of the properties.

He added: "These are reasonable claims and the residents have been advised to accept them. It is not unusual for it to take as long as five years."

Bury New Road resident Mrs Florence Harper, however, said she was "insulted" by an offer of £500.

She said: "I have lost £10,000 off the value of my flat and I am trying to move. Before they built the store it was lovely and shielded by a row of Cyprus trees.

"Now it is like Las Vegas at night, the trees have gone and I have street lamps and the lights from Tesco shining in my flat."

She added that the noise was "unbelievable" and her asthma was made worse by the "smelly", fume-filled atmosphere.

"People have got restless over the extension plans and it has made Tesco think about about the compensation offers. But I told them to stick it!"

Tesco was unavailable for comment.