JAWS have dropped at the Council for National Parks' last ditch attempt to scupper the £60 million Bluestone holiday village.

With just one hour remaining before the legal deadline, the Council for National Parks (CNP) announced its intention to ask the House of Lords to hear a final appeal on whether or not the development could lawfully be built in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

"We are not trying to delay the start of the Bluestone development, but to stop it altogether," said CNP chairman, Kate Ashbrook on Monday.

"CNP is doing what it was established to do - fight for the protection of the National Parks. CNP exists because legislation alone cannot provide sufficient environmental protection for the National Parks.

"Bluestone is a real example of where the protection system has broken down." The London-based charity said it was encouraged to take further legal action by local people who do not believe that the large-scale development is justified in the countryside of the National Park.

But the decision, which comes five weeks after three Appeal Court judges threw out CNP's case, has also sent ripples of discontentment through Pembrokeshire.

"Quite frankly, I am amazed to hear that the Council for National Parks is pursuing this case following the emphatic rejection - not once, but twice - in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal," said Councillor Stephen Watkins, chairman of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority.

"Unfortunately, yet again, this leaves the whole issue in the air for some time to come." The authority has vowed to defend its position robustly and vigorously and seek from CNP the full costs of doing so.

Only last month Welsh Secretary Peter Hain sent a very clear and simple message to those opposing Bluestone - enough is enough.

He made it clear to the CNP that the case had been lost and it was time to let the exciting project proceed.

Nick Ainger, MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, backed his Wales Office colleague.

He said: "I am particularly concerned that a charity which is there to promulgate the advantages of the National Park, seems to be, in their actions, giving out the message that the National Park is a negative organisation and this certainly seems to confirm it."

John Allen-Mirehouse, deputy leader of Pembrokeshire County Council, added to the feeling of dismay.

"I'm very disappointed that this self-appointed, unelected body has decided to drag this matter out even further," he said.

"It's a pity that the Council for National Parks cannot accept the statutory body's decision, nor that of a High Court Judge and three Appeal Court Judges, whose judgements in support of the National Park's decision were extremely convincing."

Bluestone declined to comment on the decision, confirming only that its legal team was discussing the issue.