Plans to build a 100-home development in Conwy, north Wales, have been given a boost by the High Court.
A court ruling handed down yesterday forced the Welsh planning authorities to reconsider the project, which is being brought by developer Renew Land Developments.
Renew want to build the estates on a site off Llysfaen Road in Old Colwyn. Although most of the site is in a residential area, part of it is on the site of a former quarry.
When the project went before the council’s planning committee, the response was mostly favourable, the judgment said, but it was ultimately turned down as they decided it would “result in the loss of existing open space identified as play space”.
And when the decision was appealed to a planning inspector, the inspector backed the council.
However, in a hearing earlier this month, lawyers for the developer successfully argued that the planning inspector’s decision was illogical.
This is because the land that was being used as a play space was private and could, should the landowner wish, be fenced off if the development didn’t get built.
In his ruling, the judge hearing the case, Judge Keyser QC, said that the planning inspector hadn’t properly dealt with two competing planning objectives.
“It seems to me that there is a basic point at the heart of Renew’s case which, however it might be analysed forensically, may be stated colloquially as follows: it makes no sense to suppose, and the Inspector did not adequately explain how it could be, that a development that was acceptable in principle under policies in favour of residential development on suitable sites within urban areas could be rendered unacceptable on account of a policy for the preservation of open spaces, in circumstances where the Inspector accepted that the landowner both could and would fence the relevant land, and thereby remove it from the stock of available open space, if the development were not permitted.”
The point, he said, is “unanswerable”.
He said the matter should be sent for redetermination to the planning authorities.
HIS HONOUR JUDGE KEYSER Q.C. Sitting as a Judge of the High Court
Between:
Renew Land Developments Ltd – and – Welsh Ministers – and – (1) Conwy County Borough Council (2) Cartrefi Conwy Cyf.
QBD (Judge Keyser QC) 26 March 2019
Thea Osmund-Smith (instructed by Aaron & Partners) for the claimant; Gwion Lewis (instructed by Government Legal Department) for the defendant. The interested parties did not appear and were not represented.
