CAMPAIGNERS are set to mount a legal challenge to a decision to allow protected land to be used for Olympic facilities.

The Save Leyton Marshes Group has vowed to continue to fight a Waltham Forest Council decision to permit the marshes to be used for a temporary basketball training centre.

The facility will be in place for eight months from March on open land regularly used by the community.

The council’s planning committee approved the proposal by four votes to three on February 7 despite a petition opposing the plan with 1250 signatures.

Now the group has set out its grievances in a letter to the authority and is laying the groundwork for a judicial review of the council’s decision to approve development on the land, which is protected by law.

More than £200 was raised through donations to the legal battle at the groups inaugural meeting on Monday (February 13).