A High Court ruling has set plans for an all-weather runway at Northamptonshire’s Sywell Aerodrome back.
Wellingborough Borough Council conceded, on the second day of a High Court hearing, that a crucial expert report on the proposals had not been disclosed for public scrutiny prior to the grant of planning consent.
John Steel QC, counsel for Wellingborough, told Sullivan J that, in those circumstances, the planning permission would have to be quashed. The council have also agreed to pay legal costs bills that are likely to run into many thousands of pounds.
Mr Steel claimed that the November 2001 report should not have been omitted either from the planning file or the officer’s report on the scheme, both of which were open to public inspection before permission was granted.
But he told the judge: “It was a totally innocent oversight and was in no way seeking to mislead one side or the other.”
The judge accepted that council officers had acted “honestly and diligently”, but maintained that, “through inadvertence, they failed to comply with procedural requirements”.
Crichton v Wellingborough Borough Council Queen’s Bench Division (Sullivan J) 1 May 2003.
References: PLS News 6/5/03
