NEW FERRY Butterfly park has won a long-running legal battle to stay open.

The Park has been under threat of closure since 2009, when leaseholder Cheshire Wildlife Trust (CWT) was told to vacate the site by land owner Frithmere Ltd.

At Liverpool County Court yesterday barristers for the Trust successfully argued that the park’s environmental work meant it could be classed as a business under part of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.

It means the Trust is protected from Frithmere’s notice to quit because it was served under different legislation.

But Judge David Hodge rejected claims by CWT that a letter from Frithmere’s agents asking it to go was invalid because it did not specify a leaving date.

Frithmere could now serve a notice to quit under the 1954 Act – but Judge Hodge warned the firm would find it difficult to succeed and refused to allow an appeal.

He said: “The only grounds on which I can conceive it succeeding are on redevelopment of the site, and there may be difficulty in securing planning permission in view of the nature of this land.”

The Trust was granted the tenancy in 1993 by the site’s previous owner the British Railways Board. Frithmere bought the land in 1997.