The National Trust have withdrawn their appeal to Britain's Privy Council to stop a controversial road project in the Chaplin Estate, Warwick.

National Trust lawyer Alan Dunch said the charity might have been forced to fork out a six-figure sum to Government and the land owners if they were to lose the appeal and were made to pay costs.

Instead it will push for a law to stop “Section 34” covenants, which protect land, being overturned by the Environment Minister after Bermuda's Court of Appeal ruled it was within the minister's powers.

Mr. Dunch said: “Litigation by its very nature is inherently risky.

“The Trust's view was that it was not prepared to run the economic consequences of that risk where it saw other avenues open to (it).”

He said the out of court settlement allows the withdrawal without incurring costs so far, which run back years.

Instead the Trust plans to push for amendments in the Development and Planning Act 1974 to make it impossible to over-ride section 34 agreements, said Mr. Dunch.

“The intention, I believe is for Trust to push for legislative amendments requiring the Trust itself to be party to section 34 agreements with a result that covenants done under Section 34 could not be varied without the consent of the Trust thereby adding additional protection.”

He said no direct discussions had been held yet with Government.

“We are certainly hoping Government would recognise the anomaly that is created in this legislation as interpreted by the courts and would want to resolve the anomaly in the interests of the public in the same way the Trust does.”

The case arose 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 Court of Appeal ruled the contention that Section 34 of the Planning Act endured in perpetuity must be rejected.

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

The saga began 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.

Lawyer for the landowners Delroy Duncan told The Royal Gazette last night: “My clients are extremely happy and intend to go ahead with the road.”