'Bitter disappointment' in defeat over 290 new Telford homes

People living on Wellington's Haygate Road had fiercely campaigned against the proposal.

It will see the homes built on and by Wellington Cricket Club, off Haygate Road.

They now say they feel the development was "inevitable" but have thanked all for their support in fighting the plans.

Telford & Wrekin Council had embarked on a bid to overturn a government's planning inspector's decision to permit a new estate on Haygate Fields.

But on Thursday, the High Court ruled against the council and the plans can now go ahead.

Diane Treherne, from the Save Haygate Fields group, said: "The Haygate Group are bitterly disappointed at the out come of the judicial review which took place on November 17 and the decision handed down to allow the development.

"Given the current trend for building on green field sites it was perhaps inevitable that Haygate Fields would be the target of speculative developers.

"However we would like to thank all those who have worked so hard over the last three years to 'Save Haygate Fields'."

Hundreds of people had signed petitions to try to stop the development going ahead at the site, which is near to the town's cricket club and known to locals as Haygate Fields.

They even raised money to have a barrister represent them and their views during the initial inquiry, which was held at the Whitehouse Hotel in February.

Outline planning permission was initially granted by the council but planning chiefs ordered it to be looked at again, claiming Telford already had enough housing either already built or in the pipeline for the next five years.

The developer lodged an appeal with the national Planning Inspectorate, claiming the council had taken too long to make a decision.

The developer will now be able to go ahead with the plans, which had been much contested by residents.

One of the country's top judges, Mrs Justice Lang, approved the scheme in a complex 8,000 word written ruling.

At a hearing in London two weeks ago though, the council's legal team argued that the planning inspector who ran the inquiry made mistakes of law.

They asked Mrs Justice Lang to quash the decision.

However in her ruling, the judge disagreed, backing the developer and the inspector.

She said : "In my judgment the inspector did not err in law.

"The Inspector had to exercise his planning judgment to determine whether or not this particular policy was in conformity with the National Planning Policy Framework, and the council has failed to establish that there was any public law error in his approach, or that his conclusion was irrational."

The council will now have to pay the developer's legal costs, believed to be around£18,000 as well as their own, which will be a similar figure.