The High Court has upheld a decision by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions rejecting plans for a new out-of-town Tesco supermarket on a former bus depot at Quinton, Birmingham.
Tesco had challenged the Secretary of States findings, which followed approval by the local council and a recommendation by his own inspector that the scheme should be allowed, subject to certain conditions.
However, the Secretary of State, in dismissing the application for consent, took the view that Tesco should have given greater consideration to the availability of a site that could take a smaller store situated in, or close to, an existing centre. He also considered that the proposed development would not result in a reduction in the number of car journeys that shoppers would have to make.
Tesco argued that, among other things, the Secretary of State failed adequately, or at all, to state his conclusions on the need for the development in terms of scale and location or his reasons for rejecting Tescos submission that the application complied with PPG 6 and PPG 13 regarding the issue of car use.
It also claimed that he failed to state his reasons adequately when he found that the application would not cut the number of car journeys by shoppers.
The judge said that some of the Secretary of States reasoning had been “a little ragged and lacking in precision” but, dismissing Tescos challenge, he said that overall there had been a sufficiently reasoned and rational basis for his findings.
Tesco Stores Ltd v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions Queen’s Bench Division: Administrative Court (Richards J) 21 December 2000.
Patrick Clarkson QC and Sasha White (instructed by Berwin Leighton) appeared for the claimant; Nathalie Lieven (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the respondent.
PLS News 3/1/01
