Home Counties property developer WE Black Ltd has won a High Court battle stopping another developer from erecting a four-storey building overshadowing one of its properties in St Albans.
Deputy Judge John Howell QC at the High Court in London quashed the planning permission, given in October by St Albans City & District Council to West Register (Realisations) Ltd, to develop a vacant plot at 55 Victoria Street. WE Black owns an adjacent residential block of flats at number 53.
At a court hearing earlier this week lawyers for WE Black argued that the proposed new building, which was to be both for residential and office use, would overshadow its property, which has 23 windows directly facing the proposed new block.
Lawyers for the council argued that planning permission had been granted for a similar development at number 55 when WE Black originally redeveloped number 53. This meant that, although that planning permission lapsed, WE Black was aware there might be a development directly opposite when it chose to develop the building.
The judge ruled that the earlier granting of planning permission was not a good enough reason to reject WE Black’s case. He said that planning permission applications were not “a private matter” between developers, and it was his role to work out what was in the public interest, including the interest of the residents of the flats.
WE Black Ltd v St Albans City & District Council (John Howell QC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge) Planning Court, 4 June 2015
