High Court Judge quashes greenbelt planning application for 3 marquees issued in “error” by Wirral Council in 2011
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Last Thursday councillors at a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Planning Committee were told that the long-awaited decision in the judicial review case would be handed down soon (which can be watched in the video clip above). An oral hearing of both the permission application and the substantive judicial review were both heard on the 31st of January 2018.
Since then the decision in [2018] EWHC 560 (Admin) has been published (the decision is dated the day after the Planning Committee meeting).
The background to this story can be read in an earlier blog post headlined Why did Wirral Council’s planning department send out a decision letter about 3 marquees at Thornton Manor with no planning conditions? (published on the 25th July 2017).
The planning permission that was sent in error without conditions in 2011 has now been quashed by Mr Justice Kerr. In his judgement he blames both Wirral Council (in its role as Local Planning Authority) and the Interested Party Thornton Holdings Ltd.
Wirral Council is blamed for sending out a planning application decision letter in 2011 that contained no conditions (contrary to what the Planning Committee had agreed in September 2010 as it had agreed ten conditions). The Interested Party (Thornton Holdings Ltd) is blamed for not bringing this error up sooner than it did.
Despite the judicial review being brought outside the usual 3 month time limit, it was allowed, in part because a condition in the permission that should’ve been issued allowed the marquees for five years from 2011 to 2016.
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A bit sloppy on the old planning decisions this council, maybe they really do need help with that Local Plan!
Thanks for your comment.
There was an update on what’s happening about the Local Plan at last night’s public meeting of Wirral Council’s Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee (which you can view below at about the 48 seconds point).
Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Wirral Council) 28th March 2018 Part 1 of 2
It was removed from the agenda for the meeting? I guess it can’t be very important then…..
Which public meeting are you referring to? The Planning Committee in 2010 that approved it or some other meeting?
On the Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting video above, Cllr Stuart says at 2:19 the item about SoS intervention was pulled from the agenda. It seems that Cllr Stuart had it reinstated ‘for the record’?
Yes, Cllr Stuart did mention it, although the item had been removed from the agenda because of the elections.
Makes you wonder how much tax payers money is wasted, over red tape!