IC Wales reports:

The immediate future of the £60m Bluestone holiday village, which promises up to 900 jobs and £32m a year for the Pembrokeshire economy, will be known in the next few weeks.

A High Court judge sitting in Swansea for the past three days has been hearing a legal challenge to planning approval for the vast project granted in January by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority.

Watchdog body the Council for National Parks (CNP), which challenged the decision, claims Bluestone might set a precedent which could see other national treasures such as Snowdonia or the Yorkshire Dales being built on.

Mr Justice Jack, who reserved his decision yesterday, promised a verdict soon, due to intense public interest in the scheme.

The CNP argued that because Pembrokeshire County Council had previously approved Bluestone and pledged £1m towards it, county councillors sitting on the coastal park authority were "subconsciously biased" in favour of the project.

The three-day hearing has been full of planning law jargon, something acknowledged by Mr Justice Jack yesterday.

Asking barristers if he should return to Swansea to read out his decision or merely hand out a written document he warned, "It will be repetitive and full of law and for many people listening, probably boring."

The barristers agreed just to have the document.

A decision is expected in either late December or early January with Mr Justice Jack promising to deliver his judgment quickly.

After the final day of the hearing yesterday, Ruth Chambers, head of policy at the CNP denied the legal action was a "delaying tactic".

She said, "Far from it. We intend to stop Bluestone within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park because it would set a very dangerous precedent.

"Other developers could point to this if it was given approval and our national parks could be in danger of development when they should be sacrosanct.

"If the outcome goes against us we could possibly appeal against the judge's decision.

"If the planning permission is quashed it remains to be seen if the developers will persevere.

"If they do it would then be back in the planning process and we could make our objections known at that stage."

Entrepreneur William McNamara, co-founder of the successful Oakwood Park tourist attraction and who is behind Bluestone, said yesterday he would reserve comment until after the judge's decision.

The ambitious plans for Bluestone which involve a Waterworld attraction, a hi-tech snowdome artificial skiing centre plus hundreds of log cabins in rolling countryside is a classic economy versus conservation dilemma.

Patrick Clarkson QC, acting for the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, pointed out that the authority contained councillors because they reflected local opinion.

He said it was part of their role to temper the authority's primary focus, which was one of conservation, by advocating the needs and wishes of local people.

In his closing speech yesterday, barrister David Wolfe for the CNP said reasonable and fair minded people could perceive bias among councillors on the authority because their own council had pledged £1m to the scheme.

He added that the question of the jobs which would be created by Bluestone was not a new issue.

Mr Wolfe said local planning policies did not give jobs priority over the environment.