A JUDGEMENT over a Supreme Court appeal against the HS2 project will not be made until the New Year, a council chief has said.

Campaigners took their case to the highest court in the land after claiming a Strategic Environmental Assessment should have been undertaken before a government decision to proceed with the controversial scheme was made in January 2012.

The hearing took place in October but Chiltern District Council Leader Nick Rose said at the authority's cabinet meeting yesterday the resulting judgement will not be made before Christmas.

He said: "We are still awaiting the result of the judgement from the Supreme Court. We've been advised the judgement will not be handed down in this session. It will go into January or beyond - we don't really know.

"It won't be before Christmas, which we were hoping for. The hearing date was October 15 and 16 - it's already taken up quite a long time."

Chiltern District Council is one of three authorities, along with the London Borough of Hillingdon and North Warwickshire Borough Council, that contributed costs towards the appeal from their reserves.

The court action was brought by the Amersham based HS2 Action Alliance.

During the hearing the Department for Transport's lawyer, Tim Mould QC, said it is 'unarguable' HS2 would be environmentally damaging.

The panel of seven Supreme Court judges can refer the case to the European Court of Justice for advice if necessary.