COMMUNITY leaders in Studley have hit out after dreams of a bypass for the village were shattered.

They are disappointed Warwickshire County Council was forced to withdraw its High Court action challenging the Government's decision not to build the bypass.

The challenge was withdrawn after the Government's Department of Transport (DfT) revealed it had carried out a proper assessment of the scheme, which it had previously denied.

At last January's public inquiry, held at Studley Village Hall, the DfT accepted no such assessment had been carried out so the county council initiated the High Court action.

But six months later they revealed an assessment had in fact been carried out in 2003. The county council's legal advisers now realise the challenge has little prospect of success.

Studley Parish Council chairman Councillor Bill McCarthy said: "I feel that somehow they have created an excuse about not doing the assessment, or they have been so inefficient that they had forgotten they had done it in the first place.

"I find it very suspicious that the Government only 'found' this information when they were threatened with High Court Action."

Parish council clerk Dot Mitchell added: "I really do not know why the Government failed to release this information until now. Because of this the whole public inquiry was a complete and utter waste of time."

She said the parish council was "very disappointed" by the developments and would be lobbying for traffic calming measures through the village to encourage motorists to find alternative routes.

Meanwhile, Stratford District Councillor for Studley, Hazel Wright, was furious the Conservative-ruled county council had buckled in the face of "superficial findings".

She claims the district councillors were not informed of the decision to withdraw the High Court action.

"The district councillors for Studley will not allow this land to be used up for development," she added.