Deputy prime minister John Prescott has been taken to court after he handed over responsibility for a planning decision to avoid a conflict of interest.
This follows a run of embarrassing decisions for Prescott, including those on the Westgate centre (and Ikea in Stockport).
Commercial developer Wiggins claims the ODPM acted inappropriately in rejecting its £100m London City Racecourse scheme in Fairlop Waters, near Ilford.
At a preliminary hearing at the High Court last week, Wiggins said the ODPM passed its plans for the 345-acre Foster & Partners-designed scheme to a civil servant in the Government Office for Yorkshire & Humberside.
The official rejected it as unsuitable for a greenbelt site. But Wiggins claim only a minister can reject a scheme.
The decision overturned a consent granted by Redbridge council, and a planning inspector’s ruling, which said that its economic benefits outweighed the negative impact.
A spokesman for the ODPM said Prescott was made aware of an £8,000 donation given to the Labour Party by Wiggins and that the decision was handed over to “avoid any possible appearance of impropriety”.
Wiggins’ lawyers, Berwin Leighton Paisner, and ATIS REAL Weatheralls planning partner Jeremy Edge gave evidence that the decision broke the government’s rules, in handing the decision to an unrelated department.
Trevor Goode, planning partner at BLP, said: “It took five months for Brian Sims, the planning inspector, to consider the scheme and present his recommendations.
“It took a civil servant, from a completely unrelated part of government, just eight working days to overrule his judgment.”
A second hearing is expected in April.
If the court finds in Wiggins’ favour the decision will be returned to the ODPM, which can either call a new inquiry, or issue a positive judgment for what would be the first new racecourse in the UK since Taunton opened in 1927.
References: EGi News 10/03/03
