Community theatre campaigners are celebrating being granted “important breathing space” in their bid to take over a disused magistrates’ court after councillors decided not to grant permission to a rival for a second time.

Backers of the Lewes Repertory Theatre bid to take on the town’s derelict magistrates’ court was boosted yesterday after South Downs National Park Authority’s planning committee deferred a decision on plans for a Premier Inn on the site.

The authority’s committee told developers Quora to go back to the drawing board to work on adapting a hotel design more in keeping with the rest of Lewes.

The Lewes Rep team, who are proposing a centre of excellence for film, television and theatre production, are now hoping to call on the FTSE 100 giant Whitbread’s philanthropic past to give up their claim on the site.

Supporters are hoping to arrange a meeting with Andy Harrison, chief executive of Premier Inns’ parent company Whitbread, to convince his company to stand aside in this unusual planning battle in which both Lewes Rep and Quora currently have live planning applications for the court site.

Both proposals were originally due to be heard yesterday at the authority’s monthly planning committee meeting in Midhurst until last week when the rep theatre team were told to go away and work on highways issues with their proposal.

The Quora team’s bid has been deferred to an unspecified date dependent on how quickly they address issues raised by the committee yesterday.

Planning committee chair Margaret Paren said that in theory both planning applications could be granted permission with the final decision on which project would go ahead down to the legal landowner, the Ministry of Justice.

Lewes MP Norman Baker has recently written to the ministry in an attempt to open up discussions between the Government department and the Lewes Rep team as well as contacting culture minister Sajid Javid over another campaigner’s attempts to list the former magistrates’ court.

Mrs Paren said: “It doesn’t really matter on the order of when we decide the applications, each application will be heard on its own merits and we will put on a blindfold to the other application.

“We don’t really know which application will come first but that’s not the issue, what matters is not the order but the outcome.

“After a long deliberation yesterday, we felt that the applicant had made quite considerable progress from the previous application but the design details in particular its relation with Lewes needed to be addressed.”

Vic Ient, of the LRT supporter group, said: “It gives us a bit more time for Lewes Rep to be considered rather than being pushed into the long grass.

“We are glad the members had the strength to ignore the bad recommendation from officers.

“Whitbread was founded as a public benefactor and we hope they can think about those roots rather than their profit margins and go somewhere else to build their hotel.”