IT is time to throw in the towel and accept a major retail development is coming, a leading councillor has said.

A High Court challenge which aimed to block the controversial Tollgate Village has failed.

And unless claimants Fenwick and Lion Walk Property, which owns Lion Walk shopping centre, choose to appeal the Honourable Mrs Justice Lang’s decision, the £70 million retail and leisure park, in Stanway, will now go ahead.

Tim Young, Colchester councillor responsible for leisure, said it was time to accept defeat and work on supporting town centre businesses.

He said: “I think we have got to accept it is going to go ahead and try and work with them to make sure it doesn’t impact too much on the town centre and it doesn’t affect plans for the Northern Gateway.

“I think it’s time to move on. There is still, of course, a fear it will impact the town centre and we need to make sure we support businesses to make sure that impact is not great.

“We can’t pretend there isn’t going to be an impact but we need to make sure town centre businesses thrive.”

The scheme, which had been opposed by the council, had been approved by the Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, in August but the town centre businesses launched a bid for a judicial review in September.

It is understood the application was launched on a single point of law which they said had been misinterpreted but the judge ruled this was not the case.

Colchester MP Will Quince tweeted after the announcement was made saying: “As I have said before, let’s get on with making Colchester Town Centre and Tollgate Village work together.”

It is not clear at this point whether Fenwick is going to appeal further.

Carl Milton, managing director of Fenwick in Colchester, said: “We remain committed to the Judicial Review process and once complete, we will comment further as the current situation has not altered our position presently.”

The directors of Tollgate Partnership Ltd said Tollgate Village would bring lasting economic benefits to the borough.

David Burch, director of policy at Colchester Chamber of Commerce, agreed it was time to accept the decision made by the High Court.

He said: “Now the High Court has had an opportunity to consider the objections Tollgate should be allowed to go ahead.

"We never believed it would have an impact on the town centre, we think Colchester is a growing town.”