THE likes of Gordon Brown and former Beirut hostage Terry Waite were all ears when the fight against a controversial housing bid was thrust into the national spotlight.

Members of Save Spodden Valley (SSV) travelled to London this week after the group was nominated for a top campaigning trophy.

It narrowly missed out on scooping the Sheila McKechnie consumer action award, named after the former head of the charity Shelter.

But SSV, which has been fighting against a 600-home plan for the former Turner Brothers site, says it is was an honour just to be nominated.

Spokesman Jason Addy and website designer Alice Smith represented the group at the ceremony on the South Bank.

Mr Addy said: "Although we didn't win, we were among the three shortlisted for the award in the whole country.

"Among the nominees were those who had led international campaigns, including someone who is up for the Nobel Peace Prize and another who has been lobbying the government in Zimbabwe."

He added: "We didn't realise it would be such a big ceremony, we thought it was going to be 50 people in a restaurant.

"We met Gordon Brown, who then mentioned the campaign in his speech, Terry Waite, Sir David Putnam and columnist Muriel Grey, to name a few.

"It is good to get such national recognition. Many of the people we met had been reading up on Spodden Valley on the internet."

The group is currently waiting for the council's independent experts to make public a report, which reviews the contamination survey in the planning application.