A village  is ‘delighted’ that High Court officials have dismissed two house builders’ claims against their neighbourhood plan.

Barratt Homes and Wainhomes contended that Tattenhall’s plan was flawed on a number of technical grounds and questioned the impartiality of its independent examiner, Nigel McGurk.

But in his judgment handed down at London’s Royal Courts of Justice last week, Mr Justice Supperstone ruled that he did not consider that the ‘fair minded and informed observer having considered the relevant facts would conclude that there was a real possibility that Mr McGurk was biased’.

He found that none of the grounds of Judicial Review challenge to the decision of Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Executive to approve the draft plan should succeed and accordingly dismissed the claims.

CWaC leader and Tattenhall councillor Mike Jones said: “We welcome the judge’s findings which are undoubted endorsement of the processes employed in the creation of the Tattenhall neighbourhood plan.

“This decision will be greeted with delight in Tattenhall by a community which worked so hard and showed unbelievable commitment in creating the plan.”

By 905 votes to 38, a referendum endorsed a vision for a ‘sustainable and successful’ future for the West Cheshire Domesday Book village, which has taken residents more than two years to prepare.

The ballot produced a convincing 51.86% turnout of the 1,822 eligible voters – easily exceeding the previous national record 40% in Thame, Oxfordshire.

The Judicial Review judgement will now be reported back to Executive which will be requested to formally ‘make’ the plan which will stand alongside the local plan to guide future development decisions in the area.

The Secretary of State has postponed a decision on appeals from three developers – Barratt Homes, Wainhomes and Taylor Wimpey – against the council’s rejection of planning applications to build a total of more than 300 homes in the village.

The authority will be writing to the Secretary of State to inform him of the High Court’s decision.

CWaC will also be pressing examiner Dr Charles Mynors to re-open his hearing into the Winsford neighbourhood plan, adjourned in January until the outcome of the legal challenge to the Tattenhall neighbourhood plan was known. <em/>

Caryl Roberts, from the Friends of Tattenhall, said: “We are delighted to hear that the High Court dismissed the house builders' claims against the Tattenhall Neighbourhood Plan. “This will have enormous repercussions on other embryonic neighbourhood plans,” she added.

The campaign to stop hundreds of new homes in Tattenhall featured on the national TV show The Planners last year.

Members of the community were shown opposing three green field schemes which would have resulted in 317 new homes.