The High Court will not rule on Dudley’s controversial £18 million mosque until July or August.

Dudley Council rejected the scheme for a new mosque and community training and enterprise centre on land in Hall Street.

However the Government’s planning inspector overturned the decision and approved the mosque, sparking a High Court challenge from the council.

A hearing was due to take place at Easter but was put back and council chiefs said today the case would now not be heard until the summer.

Deputy council leader Councillor Les Jones said today: “I understand the hearing has been delayed still further and we are now looking at July or August.

“The delay is all to do with the court – there’s nothing we can do about it unfortunately.”

Under the terms of a land deal with the Dudley Muslim Association (DMA), which is behind the mosque project, the council insisted the scheme had to be “substantially built” on land at Hall Street by the start of the year, or the authority would buy the land back.

A detailed planning application is yet to be submitted.

However the council says it is waiting for the High Court result before enforcing the buy-back. Councillor Jones said seizing back the land before the verdict would be viewed in a bad light by judges.

“The problem is that when they submitted the planning application it was leaving very little time for them to get the mosque built,” he said.

“We then rejected the application. I think if a judge was sitting in a court and we said they had failed to build within the terms of the agreement, the judge would say we had made it impossible for them to act within the terms.

“If the High Court supports us we will get the land back by default anyway.”

DMA leaders have previously confirmed any attempt to enforce the buy-back clause would be fiercely contested.