A SIX-DAY planning inquiry in August could finally bring an end to a long-running wrangle over a massive building site on the edge of Newton Abbot.

A government inspector will hear from both sides in a dispute over how water drains away from the building site.

Local environment campaigners say they fear waste water from Vistry Homes’ site at Wolborough will ruin the Wolborough Fen, which is an official Site of Special Scientific interest and home to rare plant species.

Vistry Homes says the water drains safely elsewhere, and the fen is outside the catchment area.

In February a planning inspector heard from both sides of the bitter dispute, which has seen protesters marching across the fields and council officers halting work on the site amid fears the developers had gone too far.

But planning inspector Tom Bristow decided the two sides were too far apart to settle it without a full-scale inquiry.

He said at the end of the February meeting: ‘I have rarely encountered as wide a gulf between the main parties as I have here.’

It has now been announced that the inquiry will run from August 4 to 7 and then again on August 11 and 12.

During the February meeting Mr Bristow expressed concern that Teignbridge Council had chosen to go into the hearing with no formal legal representation.

Vistry Homes was represented at the online hearing by high-profile King’s Counsel Lord Charles Banner, whose previous cases include the proposed third runway at Heathrow and the huge new Chinese Embassy planned in London.

He has also been tasked by Prime Minister Keir Starmer with drawing up a new planning bill which critics say would curb the powers of environmental groups.

Vistry is currently building a phase of what will be 1,200 homes on green fields on the outskirts of Newton Abbot.

The planning inquiry will be held at Teignbridge Council’s Forde House headquarters.