PARISH councillors have called off their year-long bid to get Radley Lakes registered as a Town Green following plans to transform the area into a wildlife haven.

The legal action was first launched in October 2006 to stop RWE npower, owners of Didcot Power Station, from dumping fuel ash in Thrupp Lake, and also to protect land around the nearby Bullfield Lake.

Following the findings of a public inquiry, Oxfordshire County Council decided not to grant the status to any of the land and Radley Parish Council launched a Judicial Review in April last year to challenge the ruling.

The case was due to be heard in the High Court in February, but was put on hold.

Then in a surprise U-turn in December, the energy giant agreed to turn Thrupp Lake into a nature reserve after an agreement with Sutton Courtenay landfill site to dump the majority of its spent ash there.

This week, npower revealed that the Northmoor Trust, which runs the Wittenham Clumps nature reserve, had been appointed to manage the lakes.

A spokesman for Radley Parish Council said it was now “fully satisfied that RWE npower’s public assurances constitute the necessary commitment and that npower are actively proceeding to deliver the promises made in December 2008.”

She added: “Although no parties have entered into any sort of legally-binding agreement, Radley Parish Council, as an act of goodwill, has decided to end the Judicial Review, so that further plans and negotiations will be unfettered by it.”