HEREFORDSHIRE Council has to wait and see if it has won a landmark legal challenge to its planning policies.

At the High Court today Mr Justice Collins reserved his ruling, invited both parties to submit further written evidence on issues raised over two days of complex legal argument.

The council is defending a claim made by the Dinedor Hill Action Association (DHAA) that it manipulated its own planning and democratic processes to keep 300 homes at Bullinghope, south Hereford, in its overall development plan for the county.

The case hinges on the reasons behind the council's decisions, backed by a full council vote, to reject the 2006 recommendation of a government planning inspector and keep the homes at Bullinghope, despite the inspector slamming the site as totally unacceptable.

In court the council claimed that, at the time, it needed the development to meet its government imposed target of 12,200 new homes built in the county by 2011, with work on other mayor housing sites some way off.

The homes were also seen as a source of funding for the Rotherwas access road - now opened without them.

In its submission the DHAA said the 12,200 homes were a maximum not a target.

In evidence this morning, Ian Dove QC, for the developer J.S.Bloor, said that the council had "consistently engaged" with objections to the homes and made a planning judgement.

With planning law under review, this case is one of the last of its kind to be considered, but the eventual ruling puts all of the council's future planning and housing building policies at stake.