Bath-based social housing provider Curo Places has had planning permission for a large development quashed following a legal challenge brought by a local residents association.
Bath and North East Somerset Council gave Curo outline planning permission to redevelop part of Bath’s Foxhill Estate last November. The developer planned to demolish up to 542 homes and rebuild as many as 700. The majority of properties on the estate are already owned by Curo, although some are leased from other social housing providers and some are privately owned.
However, local residents opposed the plan, fearing that the new-build homes would become unaffordable, and that they might have to move into much smaller accommodation.
And in a ruling today at the High Court in London, planning judge Mr Justice Lewis backed a legal challenge brought by the Foxhill Estates Residents Association, and quashed the permission.
In his ruling, the judge found that the council “did not have due regard to the impact on the elderly and disabled persons” on the estate when it granted permission that “might lead the demolition of their homes”.
The judge found that, even though both the council and the developer were “very properly” committed to properly inform residents and “ally concerns about displacement” the council “did not specifically address or have regard to the impact on groups with protected characteristics”.
The residents’ ongoing campaign against the project had a high profile in the local press and, in February, Curo abandoned its plans to demolish parts of the estate in the face of the opposition, and instead said it would refurbish existing properties.
However, the case still took place because “planning permission still exists, and the council does not accept that the decision to grant outline planning permission was flawed,” the judge said in his ruling.
Peter Buckley (on behalf of the Foxhill Residents Association) v Bath and North East Somerset Council
QBD (Lewis J) 20 June 2018
