A dispute over planned park-and-ride facilities at Winchester has moved to the Court of Appeal.
Planning consent for the project is due to expire in October 2003, but the scheme has been hotly contested in the courts by local environmentalists, who claim that turning a wildflower-rich grass meadow into a park-and-ride facility will disrupt the balance of nature.
In November 2002, the High Court overturned a council decision to offer a 55 acre site at Magdalen Hill as a replacement for the lost grassland.
The county council are challenging that decision as “wrong in law”. Their counsel, Elizabeth Appleby QC, argued that there was nothing wrong with the land that the council had offered as an alternative.
She told the court that time is running out for the scheme, and that, unless work on it begins soon, government funding could be jeopardised.
The hearing continues.
R (on the application of Murray) v Hampshire County Council (Brooke and Carnwath LJJ and Nelson J) Court of Appeal 14 May 2003.
References: PLS News 14/5/03
