John Whittaker’s Peel Holdings has lost its Blackburn retail park appeal in a row that saw it accused of “legal subterfuge” in the House of Commons.
Peel had hoped the Court of Appeal would overturn Judge Waksman QC’s refusal to grant a judicial review of Hyndburn borough council’s decision to reject its application for a £16m reconfiguration of its Whitebirk retail park in Blackburn .
The Manchester–based investment company wants to revamp the 265,000 sq ft scheme, which is limited to bulky goods trading, and introduce fashion and food retailers. But its plans were first thrown out following a public inquiry in 2008.
Since that decision, Peel has secured a number of planning consents permitting works to retail units at the park which it claimed had the effect that section 106 obligations, restricting the types of good that can be sold there, no longer applied.
It argued that this meant that the five units affected could be redeveloped for unrestricted A1 retail use.
Last year, Blackburn MP Jack Straw accused Peel of “legal subterfuge” and “calculated deceit” in a House of Commons debate, in which he claimed that the developer had disguised its true intentions when making the minor planning applications.
Dismissing the appeal today, Sir John Mummery said: “The outcome of this appeal is obviously of vital interest to Peel, the council and the interested parties. There may be wider repercussions for other local planning authorities and other developers of out-of-town retail shopping parks, as well as for town centres, for other kinds of retail outlets and for the public generally.”
He upheld Judge Waksman’s October 2012 ruling in favour of the council that the planning permissions did not have the effect claimed by Peel.
He said: “The later permissions were granted for operational building works only. They were neither for nor did they involve a material change of use in the units from the existing use as restricted by the terms of the 1995 agreement or the 2009 agreement.”
