High Court hears test case over compensation for Olympic CPOs

A test case has begun in the High Court over compensation payable for land compulsorily purchased for the Olympic Games, the BBC has reported.

Building firm Rooff is arguing that it should have been paid more compensation.

But planners for the London Development Agency insisted that the land was only suitable for business development.

John Hobson QC, counsel for Rooff, told the court: “It was a classic brownfield area that was awaiting beneficial regeneration and had been earmarked for that purpose. It was indeed shown that high quality, mixed-use development would have been the appropriate means of achieving that regeneration.”

Rooff is asking Mr Justice Blake to quash a decision of former Communities Secretary John Denham in 2009. The minister had upheld a planning inspector’s dismissal of the building firm’s claim.

According to the BBC, some 70 small businesses are in negotiations with the LDA over compensation after they were forced to sell land.