The former C&A store at 200-212 Oxford Street, London, is under the spotlight again, following a further legal challenge in respect of alterations to the building.
After retailer C&A’s surprise withdrawal from the UK market, the lessee of the building, Redevco Properties, sought to convert it from a department store with single retail usage into a building comprising office, retail and residential use. However, the freehold owner, Mount Cook Land Ltd, refused to grant consent for the alterations. The High Court later ruled that this consent had been unreasonably withheld.
Redevco also wished to carry out external alterations to the building, and it obtained planning permission to replace existing shop front with a new façade, and to carry out other works. However, Mount Cook challenged Redevco’s redevelopment plans once again.
Mount Cook sought to have Westminster City Council’s grant of planning permission for the external alterations overturned by the High Court, but its application was refused.
Challenging that decision in the Court of Appeal today, John Steel QC, counsel for the freehold owner, contended that the High Court judge had erred in deciding that Mount Cook’s alternative proposals for the north elevation of the building and surrounding land were irrelevant to the council’s determination of Redevco’s application for development to the northern elevation.
However, Timothy Corner QC, counsel for Westminster, said that the judge’s conclusion was correct on the basis that “as a matter of law, the existence of an alternative scheme was not capable of rendering an otherwise acceptable development unacceptable”.
He also argued that “there was no alternative scheme in existence either at all or which had any reasonable prospect of being implemented in any event, and the appellant’s proposals were therefore immaterial”.
The hearing continues.
R (on the application of Mount Cook Land Ltd and another) v Westminster City Council Court of Appeal (Auld, Clarke and Jonathan Parker LJJ) 20 May 2003.
John Steel QC, Robert White and Stephen Whale (instructed by Stephenson Harwood) appeared for the appellants; Timothy Corner QC and Robert Palmer (instructed by the solicitor to Westminster City Council) appear for the respondents.
References: PLS News 20/5/03