A HIGH Court judge will tomorrow (Thursday) decide whether ScottishPower can build its £100million gas plant on the outskirts of Knutsford.

Mr Justice Davis said yesterday that he would deliver his verdict verbally after a two-day appeal in London.

He must decide if Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was right to overrule a public inquiry inspector when he approved the plans for Byley.

The judge had warned protesters, who had travelled almost 200 miles to hear the case, that it might have taken months for his written judgement to be published.

"If I make a handed down judgement then I warnyou that it could take some time," he told them.

Their barrister William Upton QC said residents, who have already battled against the plans for more than four years, deserved to know immediately.

"It has to be said that it has been about two years since the end of the public inquiry," he said.

Lady Ann Winterton, MP for Congleton, was in court yesterday afternoon to support the 20 protesters who had packed the tiny court.

The judge had heard two days of evidence from barristers representing thousands of protesters, the Government and ScottishPower.

He had also sifted through hundreds of pages of documents containing legal arguments and planning policy.

Cranage Parish Council and three local residents had served the writ against Mr Prescott under section 188 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

Mr Upton QC had spent Monday arguing that the decision should be reversed and highlighted issues under planning policy, health and safety, landscaping, need and human rights.

But yesterday Natalie Lieven QC, representing Mr Prescott, argued that he was right to ignore the independent inspector's ruling.

She argued that the plant, which would cover a site of 1.8 hectares and affect an area of 280 hectares, would serve a national need.