A High Court judge has thrown out a legal challenge aimed at blocking a £60m West Wales holiday village scheme.
Mr Justice Jack’s verdict on the 500-acre Bluestone development at Narbeth, Pembrokeshire, followed a three-day hearing at Swansea Crown Court last month.
The scheme, by Bluestone Holdings and Alfred McAlpine Construction, comprises 340 two and three-bedroom timber lodges imported from Estonia.
The holiday village accommodates leisure, retail and catering facilities, a 26,000 sq ft sports club and a sewage treatment works.
It will be the national park’s third largest settlement after Tenby and Saundersfoot, and potentially the largest greenfield development permitted in any of the 12 national parks in England and Wales since their designation in the 1950s.
The Council for National Parks (CNP) had attempted to block the ambitious west Wales scheme last year, which partly fell within a coastal national park.
The CNP said members of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority backed it against the advice of their officers.
The national parks watchdog claimed the planning process was biased and warned the project set a precedent which could jeopardise national parks across the UK.
William McNamara of Bluestone Holdings said he hoped the first phase of the scheme would be completed by the summer of 2006.
He said, “We have had consent on six occasions from two authorities, the Welsh Assembly has seen it and the Wales ombudsman has seen it.
“It was then challenged in the High Court for three days and that challenge has now been dismissed in a very explicit judgement.
“This is a great Christmas present. We are all delighted that common sense has prevailed.”
A spokeswoman for the CNP said it would consider going to the Court of Appeal.”
References: EGi News 20/12/04
