THE council is being accused of "ducking the issue" after a resident's landmark legal victory.

Single mother Dianne Barker spent more than seven years fighting Bromley Council to try to block a cinema complex on Crystal Palace Park opposite her flat.

The 36-year-old discovered a developer was planning to build a 20-screen multiplex including restaurants, bars and the largest rooftop car park in Europe.

Bromley Council granted outline planning permission for the development in 1999 and said it could not make the builders carry out an environmental impact assessment once this had been granted.

This would have formally looked into the effects of the building on the parkland.

But in December, seven years and seven months and a dozen court hearings later, the House of Lords endorsed the decision of the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg.

It ruled last June the council was wrong not to make the developer carry out an assessment.

This ruling will mean the Government has to create a new law which will always be linked to Ms Barker.

Bromley Council and the Government have been ordered to split the payment of Ms Barker's costs.

But the council is asking the Government to pay the full amount because it says it was only following its advice.

Crystal Palace Community Association chairman John Payne says this is missing the point.

Mr Payne said: "The fact is they should have ordered an assessment at the earliest stage.

"It was the largest development of its type in the south-east with the largest rooftop car park.

"The council is really ducking the issue."

A Bromley Council spokesman said: "We followed the criteria as laid down by the Government and considered a variety of factors.

"Environmental factors were considered and examined in depth and whether you agree with the conclusions or not is another matter.

"For us this is a procedural matter more than anything else."