The National Trust is to appeal to Britain's Privy Council in a bid to stop covenants which protect land being overturned by Government.

The move follows June's decision by Bermuda's Appeals Court that the covenants, known as "Section 34 agreements", could be overturned by the Environment Minister.

The case had arisen after former Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson granted permission for an access road at the Chaplin Estate in Warwick in 2000.

The National Trust argued this did not take into account the covenant protecting important woodland and habitat. But the Appeal Court said the contention that Section 34 of the Planning Act endured in perpetuity must be rejected.

In their judgment they said: "Even if expressed to be permanent, it can be extinguished by a subsequent agreement under Section 34 which provides for its extinction.

"The court said that although the Section 34 did not have express powers to vary or extinguish earlier agreements, neither did it bar this from happening."

The National Trust had labelled that decision a black day for environmentalists and warned that no covenant would now be safe.

Yesterday National Trust lawyer Alan Dunch said leave to appeal had been launched last month and the hearing for leave to appeal in Bermuda's Appeals court would likely be heard in the next session in November.

It is the latest twist in a saga which started in the 1990s when home owners Keith James and Roger Raynor applied to get access from Harbour Road which would affect the covenant.

The scheme had already been rejected four times by the Development Applications Board and twice by independent planning inspectors before Mr. Hodgson overruled.

Planners and the original land owner, Charlie Chaplin's widow Lady Oona Chaplin had put the Section 34 in place to protect the woodland in return for allowing her to subdivide the lot before homes were built in the early 1990s.

June's Appeal's Court decision remitted the case back to the Minister and even if he removed the Section 34, Mr. Dunch said there was still an injunction preventing work being done on the estate. Mr. Dunch said if leave was granted it could be another year or 18 months before the National Trust headed to London to the Privy Council, which consists of five law lords sitting at Number 12 Downing Street, next door but one to Prime Minister Tony Blair's official home.

Mr. Dunch told The Royal Gazette: "The National Trust takes the position that a Section 34 agreement is something which should not be allowed to be violated.

"There are still some questions as to whether or not the decision of the court of appeal is one that's grounded in law."