Plans for a new glass and steel building on the site of Londons old Crystal Palace today overcame another legal stumbling block.
The Court of Appeal today held that outline planning consent for a new multiplex cinema on the site had been lawfully granted to London and Regional Properties.
The decision left protesters facing estimated legal costs of £100,000, but they have pledged to take their case to the House of Lords and to do all they can to thwart the scheme when it reaches the detailed planning stage.
Kennedy and Schiemann LJJ and Sir Iain Glidewell held that the new building was close enough to the “spirit” of the original – even though there is not a strong resemblance – to have entitled the council to approve it.
The protesters had challenged Bromley Borough Councils approval of the scheme, arguing that the proposed complex did not reflect the architectural style of the original building as required under the provisions of the 1990 Crystal Palace Act, which regulates development of the site.
Schiemann LJ said that when he had originally looked at the plans for the new building he had considered, as a layman, that the new building did not reflect the architectural style of the original.
However, he said that architects, including experts from English Heritage and the Royal Fine Art Commission, had advised the council that the plan sufficiently reflected the spirit of the original.
Backing the council, he said: “The most competent people to decide this are architects, not councillors or judges.”
He added that, in the circumstances, the councillors had been acting reasonably in accepting the views of experts advising them and approving the scheme.
The challenge to the scheme, under which the developers are to pay £6m to lease the 12-acre site from the council, was launched by the Crystal Palace Campaign.
Leave to appeal to the House of Lords was refused, but it is expected that an application for leave will be made direct to the Law Lords.
After todays decision Ken Lewington, vice chairman of the campaign said that efforts would continue in a bid to block the scheme when it reaches further planning stages. “We have so far managed to delay it by at least two years,” he said.
He added: “Todays decision gives a signal to architects throughout the land that they can now see architectural style as meaning anything they want it to.”
PLS News, 21/12/98
