Your Energy Ltd will have to reapply for planning permission

Planners turned down a firm's appeal to build the wind farm at Winterborne Zelston, after an original proposal was rejected in October 2004.

North Dorset District Council planners said the firm failed to provide grounds of appeal.

Your Energy Ltd told the BBC News website on Thursday it was no longer pursuing planning application.

The firm would have to reapply if they wanted to appeal the decision.

This news will remove from hundreds of local inhabitants the threat that has been hanging over them for the last two years and enable them to get on with their lives Dorset Against Rural Turbines (Dart) spokesperson

Managing director of Your Energy Ltd, Richard Mardon, said the appeal process had been abandoned for the time being but the project might be restarted in the future.

"The objections were not going to be solved in the short term," he told the BBC News website.

"We did not want to waste any more money, time, or cause any more local disruption.

"So we shelved the project - not abandoned it - it may come back in the future."

'Removes threat'

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and Dorset Against Rural Turbines (Dart) both campaigned against the turbines, which they said would have been taller than the spire at Salisbury Cathedral.

"[We] were delighted to hear that the appeal lodged by Your Energy Ltd on 27 April against the refusal by North Dorset District Council of their application to build nine giant wind turbines... has been dismissed," a Dart spokesperson said.

"This news will remove from hundreds of local inhabitants the threat that has been hanging over them for the last two years and enable them to get on with their lives."

Nick Fagan, development control manager at North Dorset District Council, said: "We are very pleased that the planning inspectorate has agreed that the appeal they submitted was invalid."