Court to rule on farmland homes
A FINAL decision over whether more than 1,000 homes can be built on farmland in South Devon will be made by the High Court, after a full judicial review was allowed, writes Daniel Clark.
PCL Planning’s scheme, submitted on behalf of the Rew family, was granted planning permission in June, 2020, after the Secretary of State allowed the appeal for the land at Wolborough Barton, in Newton Abbot.
As well as the 1,210 new homes, the Wolborough scheme includes a new primary school, employment land, community facilities, including a day nursery and a health centre, a local shopping centre, a play area, allotments and a multi-use games area, as well as a link road connecting the A380 and the A381.
Full planning permission to convert the Wolborough Barton farmstead into a boutique hotel, restaurant and bar has also been granted by the Secretary of State, but Abbotskerswell Parish Council took legal action over the granting of the appeal and challenged the decision.
At a hearing last week, Mr Justice Dove granted permission for them to proceed to a full judicial review hearing. They will now have opportunity to argue in detail why it was not lawful for the Secretary of State to grant the planning consent.
The case has been designated as a significant planning matter, meaning the final hearing will be fixed for the earliest opportunity – likely to be before Christmas.
The judicial review has been allowed on three grounds:
That the Secretary of State erred in law by breaching his environmental impact assessment obligations in granting planning consent without relevant environmental information before him; in particular, the lack of any assessment of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impact.
That he erred in law by failing to address the lack of biodiversity information for the proposal.
That he breached habitats legislation and, in particular, if the expected mitigations of the proposals effects on protected species are “uncertain” at the time of an appropriate assessment, then they could not be taken into account.
The news has been welcomed by Newton Says No councillors, who campaigned and were elected to the council due to their opposition to the NA3 development.
Cllr Liam Mullone, leader of the Newton Says No group, said: “Abbotskerswell just wants to survive as a village, not the poor end of a Seventies-style sink estate. It deserves to be allowed to fight for that without being impoverished and conspired against.”