Villagers have lost their long-running legal battle against plans to expand Crisp Maltings.

Judges at the Supreme Court in London have today ruled that the firm can build new silos and a lorry park at Great Ryburgh, near Fakenham.

North Norfolk District Council gave the scheme planning permission in September 2011. But campaigners feared the development would harm the River Wensum, which flows through the village and is home to rare species including brown trout, white-clawed crayfish, Desmoulin's whorl snail and otters.

Ryburgh Village Action Group claimed an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) should have been carried out to gauge the scheme's impact on the river. But the council said it didn't need one.

Action group member Matthew Champion, who lives in Ryburgh, won a High Court ruling against the council's decision, which was later overturned by the Appeal Court.

Now five judges sitting in the Supreme Court have unanimously dismissed the appeal court's decision. They said the development should have been subject to an assessment, but had it been carried out, there is nothing to suggest the council would have arrived at a different decision. North Norfolk council said the ruling was 'welcome news' for the local economy.

Leader Tom Fitzpatrick said: 'It will safeguard 35 jobs at the maltings, which is a very important business in north Norfolk. There's local employment in several ways, there's the lorry drivers, there's the meintenance o those lorries. For the local economy it's very important because it consolidates Crisp Maltings in Ryburgh.'

Crisp originally argued that the proposal would not involve any increase in production at the plant - which produces 115,000 tonnes of malt a year. The firm said the new silos would lead to less lorry movements.

David Thompson, chief executive of Crisp's parent company Anglia Maltings, said: 'We welcome the judgement by the Supreme Court that rules our planning permission to be safe. It allows us to start implementing plans originally approved some four years ago.

'This is a helpful development that supports agriculture, the food and drink manufacturing sector and local employment.

'As soon as we've had a chance to look at and absorb the full ruling, we'll issue some more details. In the meantime we'd like to thank members of the local community and North Norfolk District Council who have supported us in the long process.'

Mr Champion said: 'For the villagers who have been fighting this legal battle for the last five years the judgment handed down by the Supreme Court is something of a double-edged sword.

'On the one hand the campaign spearheaded by the Ryburgh Village Amenity Group has been entirely vindicated. Five Supreme Court judges have ruled that the original development should have been subject to an EIA, and that North Norfolk District Council's decision to allow it to proceed without the barest minimum of environmental protection laid down by the legislation was initially unlawful.

'However, we are obviously disappointed that the Supreme Court has seen fit to allow the planning permission to be reinstated as a matter of discretion, based upon the assumption that the same decision would have been reached had a full EIA taken place. This is an assumption that we, the villagers, cannot agree with.'