Campaigners battling a 'superquarry' in the middle of a beautiful countryside on the Lizard have vowed to take their fight to judicial review after Cornwall Council rejected government advice on the matter.

Cornwall Against Dean Superquarry (CADS) has said it will take its campaign to the courts after the council refused to accept the opinion of Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, who overturned earlier planning permission granted by the council.

He rejected the decision, made in April, as the council had failed to ask for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the work, and for subsequent planning applications which he believes will be submitted by quarrying company Shire Oak Energy.

Now CADS has said the council is refusing to accept the decision, and the campaigners have engaged solicitors Stephens Scown to request a judicial review to force a new application including an EIA.

Alison MacGregor of CADS said: "We have put in for a court date, the wheels are in motion.

"We wouldn't be doing this if we didn't think we were in with a good chance."

She also said she thought the council were under pressure from both sides, and had possibly not accepted Mr Clark's decision due to fear of being sued by Shire Oak Energy, although if they lose the appeal they will have to pay both sides' costs.

The plans approved by Cornwall Council were the first step to wards a quarry incorporating a 535 metre long breakwater in the Manacles Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ), which would ship millions of tonnes of armour rock from the quarry - situated in a Site of Special Scientific Interest, within an Area of Natural Beauty, and surrounded by the Lizard Special Area of Conservation - to build a new green energy generating tidal lagoon in Swansea.

A CADS spokesperson said: "All these highly protected areas were not considered as part of the developer?s initial application for buildings to facilitate the reopening of Dean Quarry, because of the all-too common approach by developers to 'split' or 'salami slice' their applications.

"This approach is soundly refuted by the Secretary of State, who believes, as CADS do, and many councillors, that an application which points toward, and is inextricably linked with, a much larger project, causing serious environmental impact on its surroundings should not be regarded in isolation."

Now CADS needs an estimated £20,000 to cover the costs of the review, which might only be the first of many battles it has to fight, and the group has set up a fundraising page at www.cads2015.com/donations-and-fundraising.

At the time of going to press, neither Cornwall Council's planning department and Shire Oak's representative's had not commented on the announcement.