Seven concession businesses at Hare Hatch Sheeplands garden centre in Berkshire have finally lost their battle to stay open.

They will have to leave the site by May following a High Court ruling that their presence was unlawful.

Enforcement action has been ongoing since 2012, when owner Rob Scott was accused by Wokingham Borough Council of breaching the green belt and extending a café and play area unlawfully.

The council said the business only had planning permission to operate as a plant nursery, café and farm shop, not a full garden centre. Mr Scott could not prove the unauthorised operations had been running for 10 years or more and thus came outside the rules.

The council said it had no choice but to take legal action after Mr Scott ignored an enforcement notice.

Mr Scott and the businesses appealed the notice and the case was heard at the High Court last month.

In a written judgement issued this week, judge Karen Walden-Smith granted an injunction against the garden centre, obliging it to comply with the enforcement notice and close any unlawful activities by 1 May.

She said Mr Scott had completely exhausted the planning process and rejected his argument that the notice was flawed.

Mr Scott was ordered him to pay the council’s costs, with an initial payment of £20,000 within 28 days.

Judge Walden-Smith said: “There is a clear need for the local planning authority to be able to enforce planning control in the green belt in the general interest of the public.

“Even if there is a general and widespread support for this business, as I am told there is, that support does not circumvent the need for planning control.”

She conceded that her ruling would adversely affect businesses on the site but said Mr Scott and other occupiers had shown “a clear and wilful intention to breach planning control” and that he had been warned about the council’s intentions over a considerable period of time.

 “It is clear from the evidence that this was an issue fraught with difficulties. Mr Scott has heavily invested in the site and I am told that the effective closure of the business would result in extreme personal hardship.

“The council was seeking to uphold its planning obligations, protecting the green belt and resisting creating a precedent. The local planning authority has an obligation to enforce planning control for the greater good, particularly where they are protecting the green belt from harm.”

Judge Walden-Smith asked the council to redraft the injunction notice so it would be “understandable” to the businesses.

After the ruling, Mr Scott said he had not given up hope.He said: “The next step is for my legal team to view the reworded document and advise me on what action we can now take. I will not know what that is until we have all had a chance to get together and discuss the options.” On the garden centre website, he reassures customers that it is business as usual in the meantime.

The centre had drawn support from hundreds of customers as well as several Wokingham borough councillors and even Prime Minister Theresa May who, at a public meeting in 2014 when she was Home Secretary said she shopped at the centre and offered to broker a deal between the business and the council.

Last year, more than 4,800 people signed a petition started by Mr Scott.

In September, a public inquiry refused a separate appeal by Mr Scott against the council’s refusal to grant a certificate of lawful use.