Court orders speedy trial of Portsmouth CPO challenge

The High Court has ordered a speedy trial of a challenge to the compulsory purchase of properties required to transform Portsmouth’s Tricorn Centre – which was once voted one of Britain’s ugliest buildings – into a £500m, 1m sq ft shopping centre. On Friday, Ouseley J granted Portsmouth City Council’s application for expedition of the challenge by local protestor and shop owner Mark Austin, which has held up progress at Centros’s Northern Quarter scheme. Austin, who will lose a property under the CPO granted by the council, was told by the judge that he must provide further details of the grounds of challenge or face the possible striking out of his claim. The judge also asked Austin, who is representing himself, to provide evidence that he has standing to bring the challenge on behalf of a Panamanian company as its president and chairman. Provided that Austin complies with those orders, the case could be tried by August and should last three days before a judge with planning experience. The Northern Quarter scheme will be anchored by a 230,000 sq ft John Lewis department store and is scheduled to open in 2012, two years later than originally projected.