Judge refuses permission for judicial review of planning permission for 10,000 home garden town project
The High Court has, on the papers, refused claimants permission to apply for judicial review of the decision of East Herts District Council to grant outline planning permission for 10,000 homes across seven new villages.
According to Douglas Edwards KC and Kate Olley of Francis Taylor Building, the claimants were seeking to bring the claim on nine separate and wide-ranging grounds.
These were based on the treatment of strategic viability reports, the alleged contravention of ss100D and 100E of the Local Government Act 1972, the alleged impact on the historic environment (specifically the property owned by the claimants), the issue of the alternative siting of sports provision, the treatment of comments made by the Quality Review Panel, the question as to whether the applications should have been referred back to East Herts’ Planning Committee after finalisation of the respective s106 agreements and whether, in accepting separate Environmental Statements for the villages, the defendant local authorityhad failed to assess the cumulative effect of the developments.
In that regard the reasons given by the defendant were found by the judge to be in accordance with the approach endorsed in R (Wingfield) v Canterbury City Council [2019] EWHC 1975 (Admin).
Douglas Edwards KC and Kate Olley acted for the local planning authority, instructed by Lee Gordon and Josh Fraser of Walker Morris.
Harlow and Gilston Garden Town is a partnership between East Herts, Harlow and Epping Forest councils and Hertfordshire and Essex county councils intended to provide 16,000 new homes by 2034.
East Herts and Harlow in 2022 defeated an attempt to take them to judicial review over aspects of the project.
Mrs Justice Lang ruled then in the High Court then that all six grounds argued by local landowner Roger Beaumont failed.
Mr Beaumont had sought to challenge permissions given by both councils for a new bridge over the River Stort and associated works.
