Westminster city council has failed in a High Court challenge to the grant of planning permission for a new supermarket in its area.
A planning inspector allowed an appeal by Sainsbury’s and granted permission for the new supermarket, lifting a restriction on non-food retailing at the premises at unit 1 of 10 Rochester Row, London SW1. The inspector took a different view on the issue of noise impact arising from a new service entrance that will be part of the development.
Westminster claimed that the inspector took a “flawed” approach to the question of noise impact on residents in the flats above, but Deputy Judge Ockelton dismissed its case.
He said: “As the inspector remarked, any increase in noise levels is undesirable, but he had to judge whether the proposed increase was unacceptable in what was, as he had found, not the quiet backwater described by the Council but already a noisy city street.
“I reject the council’s attack on the inspector’s decision. It is a decision that he was entitled to make in the exercise of his planning judgment, on the material before him. There is no discernable defect of natural justice, nor are there reasons given by the inspector insufficient to enable those concerned to understand why he came to the decision that he did.”
The council had rejected the application both on the noise issue and on the basis that arrangements for deliveries at the rear of Unit 1 conflicted with policy on the promotion of pedestrian movements.
