Ashtenne Industrial Fund (AIF) is awaiting the outcome of its bid for permission to proceed with part of its redevelopment of a 48-acre (19.4ha) industrial estate in Chippenham, Wiltshire.
Deputy High Court judge Ian Dove QC has reserved judgment in the claim brought by AIF and Asda, seeking to quash the decision of the secretary of state for communities and local government to uphold North Wiltshire District Council’s refusal of permission for the development.
In 2004, Ashtenne Holdings, on behalf of AIF, paid Skelton Group £33.1m for the 815,000 sq ft mixed-use Langley Park estate, which adjoins Chippenham town centre.
As part of its plans for the site, AIF proposed to build an 8,736m2 Asda store with car parking and 192 homes.
The council rejected those proposals together with the conservation area consent to demolish a building on the site.
AIF’s appeal to the secretary of state’s inspector was dismissed in a decision letter dated 5 August 2008.
The inspector found, among other things, that the proposals conflicted with local and national policy objectives, the overall design was inadequate and “green lungs” had not been provided within the proposed housing.
AIF’s counsel,
In response, Paul Brown QC, for the secretary of state, submitted that the claimants had undertaken an “entirely inappropriate”, “line-by-line dissection” of the inspector’s reasoning, challenging every conclusion adverse to them, “notwithstanding the fact that these were virtually all matters of planning judgment”.
