Bottled water from Harrogate will soon be flowing after Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott gave the go-ahead for plans to sell the spa town's water.

In a move which has infuriated over 1,000 protesters and left supporters delighted, Mr Prescott - wearing his Environment Secretary's hat - has declined to intervene in plans for a bottling plant on an environmentally-sensitive site on the edge of the Pine Woods at Harlow Moor Road.

Councillors voted 18-13 in favour of the plant but had to refer it to the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber as a departure from the borough's development blueprint.

Protesters, who fear the plant could fail and either be left empty or be devoted to other uses, bombarded Mr Prescott with pleas for a public inquiry.

But yesterday they received the news that Mr Prescott was leaving it to the council to decide the scheme.

Andrew Booth, for the planning and transport department in Leeds, told objectors: "The points raised in your letter were taken into account when making a decision. The Secretary of State has now decided on all the information before him that the Department should not intervene."

The ruling was attacked by one of the protest leaders Judy d'Arcy Thompson was unfair and unjust. But she said there was little if any likelihood of any legal challenge in the form of a judicial review, on cost grounds.

But former Mayor George Crowther, who has worked for a decade to bring about a spa revival, was delighted with Mr Prescott's stance. "Harrogate's future prosperity needs this bottling plant. I have written to the big supermarkets who have recognised Harrogate Water as a rival for those from places like Buxton and Ashbourne."