LIVERPOOL developer Bill Davies finally ended his lengthy battle with Liverpool council last night – and walked away with a £2m pay day.

The Daily Post can reveal Liverpool taxpayers will end up paying 80 times the £25,000 which Mr Davies’s Walton Group paid the council in 1996 for a disputed option to develop Chavasse Park.

The deal finally brings to an end years of legal wrangles between Davies and the city council.

It also emerged last night that the Walton Group had moved its offices to Berkshire, essentially bringing an end to its major activity in Liverpool.

Mr Davies had been seeking £100m compensation for profits he claimed his company had lost after council and government opposition derailed his company’s £400m shopping centre plan for the park.

After a legal battle with the city council in 2002, Mr Davies lost the right to develop the site which is now the home of the £1bn Liverpool One development.

Last night, Liverpool City Council said it would only confirm that a “mutually agreed terms” settlement had been reached with Walton Group.

Neither the Walton Group nor the council would comment further for confidentiality reasons. No-one answered the door at Mr Davies’s extensive residence in Wirral last night.

Deputy Labour leader Cllr Paul Brant said the pay-out to Walton Group was worrying given the financial difficulties at the authority.

He added: “It is deeply troubling that in this year when the council is scrabbling round to pay for Capital of Culture that a further enormous loss is sustained.

“I find it surprising that the council didn't apply to strike out this claim a long time ago.