A controversial decision to allow an exclusive golf course, luxury hotel and spa to be created on a historic estate is to reviewed by the High Court.

Mole Valley District Council (MVDC) granted planning permission last May for the development of Cherkley Court, near Leatherhead, the former home of press baron Lord Beaverbrook.

The £30m project which would create 200 jobs includes a 18-hole golf course which is being co-designed by Tom Watson, one of the world’s top golfers.

But the Cherkley Campaign, backed by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), argues the project will blight a precious chalk grassland habitat and last month applied for a judicial review at the High Court of the council's decision.

It is claiming that it went against the local plan and ecological surveys and water surveys should have been carried out.

A council spokesman said the necessary environmental impact assessment had been carried out and it was planning on "robustly refuting" the legal challenge.

They said: "MVDC compiled a response to the proceedings over the Christmas and New Year period and it will be filed at the High Court in the next few days."

Tim Harrold, chairman of Cherkley Campaign, said: "We are confident that we have a strong case and that it is in the public interest to mount a legal challenge.

"If this permission is allowed to stand it will set a dreadful precedent, not only in Mole Valley, but for the Green Belt as a whole, and on any protected landscape and ecologically sensitive site across the country."

Fellow campaigner, Kristina Kenworthy, said: "The decision was unlawfully made because it went against the local plan.

"They should have done all the ecological surveys and water tests before they made the decision to change land use from agricultural to recreational."

Developer, Longshot Cherkley Court, insists the project will not only enhance the environment, but restore the estate to its former grandeur and create a ‘jewel in the crown of Mole Valley’.

Ollie Vigors, one of the company directors, said: "We are very, very aware of the sensitivity of the environment and we have gone out of our way to protect it.

"We want to conserve, enhance and preserve Cherkley Court to create a jewel in the crown of Mole Valley.

"We want the place to be used. We want to create something really magnificent."

He criticised the campaigners who have pressed for a judicial review: "We do believe there is a small minority of people who will stop at nothing to get our planning permission quashed with no grounds for doing so."

An earlier appeal against the decision to grant planning permission in May was referred to the Secretary of State for Community, Eric Pickles, who in July decided there were no grounds to justify calling in the application.

The decision to grant planning permission was then finalised in September.

Lord Beaverbrook, owner of the Express Newspaper Group and minister during both World Wars, bought the property after a single viewing in 1911.

It is thought that Winston Churchill was given his own room because he spent so much time there.

In 2010 the historic country house closed to the public and was put up for sale after the Beaverbrook Foundation decided it could not be profitable.