The highest Dutch administrative court, the Council of State, has overturned controversial plans to widen the A27 motorway next to the Ameliseerd nature reserve in Utrecht because of a lack of clarity about nitrogen emissions.

A majority of MPs had already backed a motion to scrap plans to expand part of the highway near Utrecht from 10 to 14 lanes earlier this year. Environmental campaigners had slammed the plans because they would have meant chopping down hundreds of trees.

The Council of State has now decided the project would have negative effects on five Natura 2000 areas in the locality.

The controversy around Amelisweerd, which started in 1982 with the construction of the A27, “has now been put to bed at last”, the legal body said.