A housing development in Colliers End, East Hertfordshire, faces legal hurdles after a local resident won permission today to bring a legal challenge.Mr Justice Ouseley said today that resident Jonathan Appleby could bring a judicial review of East Hertfordshire’s decision to allow the development because it was “arguable” that conditions set by the council to make sure the development doesn’t cause flooding problems aren’t “man enough for the task”.
Appleby’s lawyer, Richard Buxton, said at a hearing today that his client owns a grade II listed property, Barnacres, which is next to the proposed development site.
Buxton said that the area was at risk of flooding. He said the field in which the housing development will be built is good “attainer” of water, and helps flooding drain away. When the empty field becomes hard-surfaced for development, however, floodwater may back up, and flood Barnacres, Buxton said.
He argued that the drainage engineer must have failed to realise that that the area was at risk of flooding. Had the drainage engineer been aware of the risk, his assessment of the area might have been different, and East Hertfordshire Council might not have given planning permission to the project.
However Ouesley J, the judge in the hearing, said that Buxton “can’t infer” that the flooding engineer was unaware of the flood risk in the area. He said that, instead, the focal point of the case should be a planning condition that the council put on the planning permission.
Condition Four stipulated that building work cannot take place until a surface water drainage scheme is approved. That scheme needs to demonstrate that the surface water run off generated by the new development wouldn’t be more than the undeveloped site.
After questioning the council’s lawyer, Zack Simons, Ouseley suggested that it might be “arguable” that the developers could meet the drainage conditions stipulated by the council, but still end up flooding the neighboring property.
He said that permission to bring a judicial review of the planning permission decision should be granted, because “condition four is arguably not man enough for the task”.
Appleby v East Hertfordshire Council
Planning Court (Ouseley J) 29 November 2016
