Community group launches two judicial review challenges against district council

South Cambridgeshire District Council faces judicial reviews over two planning disputes brought by the same community group.

The Fews Lane Consortium has alleged that the council acted unlawfully by announcing a public consultation on a planning application in Longstanton, but then approved it before the consultation period had closed.

In the second case the consortium claimed the council had a practice of taking delegated decisions on planning applications at unannounced meetings, from which the public were excluded and for which no agendas or minutes are published, contrary to the Local Government Act 1972.

A South Cambridgeshire spokesman said: “We always try and be as open and transparent as possible but as there are legal processes being carried out we are not able to comment further on the details of these cases at this stage. 

“We really care about making sure decisions are democratic and are listening to the concerns of Fews Lane Consortium.

“Due to the recent challenge we are reviewing our constitution to make it really clear who is responsible for where planning decisions are made.”

Mark Smulian