The town will be without a major supermarket for up to two years

The company has dropped its objection to the shop being bought by Allerdale Council which wants to demolish it to make way for town centre development.

The Co-op had initially promised to fight being bought up by the council as part of multi-million pound proposals to redevelop the town centre.

A legal challenge from the firm to a Compulsory Purchase Order could have held up the council's plans for some considerable time.

But on Wednesday the two sides said they had reached an agreement which would mean the closure of the shop and demolition of the site.

Neil Arnold, the Co-Op's chief executive in the area, said the company would try to find a number of smaller sites from which to carry on trading in Workington.

The move means the town centre will be without a major food supermarket for two years until either Tesco or Asda can develop on the Laundry field site.