Park stands firm on Bluestone

The holiday village will include an indoor snow centre

The Pembrokeshire National Park Authority has unanimously backed plans for a £60m holiday village - the second time they have voted in favour of it.

Legal action may now be taken to stop the Bluestone project.

The Council for National Parks says the development would be harmful and set a precedent and had asked the park authority to reconsider it.

The project's backers accused it of last-minute delaying tactics.

Plans for the 500-acre leisure and sports village, complete with 340 log cabins and a snow dome were first unveiled nearly two years ago.

Part of the holiday village, which will create 600 permanent jobs, lies on land belonging to the Pembrokeshire National Park Authority which is why their permission was needed for it to go ahead.

'Coach and horses'

Members at an earlier meeting passed the plans by seven votes to three, but the vote this time was unanimous.

Ruth Chambers of the Council for National Parks, which has already called on the Welsh assembly to intervene, said she was "deeply disappointed" at the decision and would decide on possible legal action over the next few days.

She said: "We consider that this development will seriously harm national park purposes and that this approval sets an unwelcome precedent for this and other national parks."

"Allowing it to go ahead drives a coach and horses through the policies which are meant to ensure protection of the National Park."

Chief executive of Bluestone William McNamara said the project would be a big boost to tourism in the county and would bring hundreds of jobs.

"This is just one more last-minute tactic intended to threaten and pressurise Pembrokeshire Coast National Park committee and delay Bluestone," he said before the meeting.

"Committee members approved Bluestone by a majority vote last December and emphatically ratified that decision following a four week 'cooling off' period."