London’s High Court has given the go-ahead for work to continue at Imperial Wharf, one of the capital’s largest development sites. Newman J has rejected a challenge to the scheme by a cancer sufferer who lives next to the site and claims that her asthmatic daughter’s health will be threatened by proposed excavation works.
Sonia Burkett had asked the court to quash Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council’s decision to grant outline planning permission for the development of the former British Gas site, which will involve the construction of a number of buildings of up to 22 storeys.
Newman J has backed the council’s decision, paving the way for the development work to continue.
The Imperial Wharf scheme involves the urban regeneration of a 23-acre site on the north bank of the Thames between Wandsworth Bridge and Battersea Bridge.
Mrs Burkett had claimed that an environmental statement carried out prior to the grant of planning permission had been inadequate in many respects, particularly in its failure to properly analyse the possible effect of dust from the development.
Rejecting her challenge, Newman J said that the council had properly taken the relevant environmental information into account at the appropriate time, and that no prejudice had been caused to Mrs Burkett.
He said: “The mere fact that a need for site workers to have protective clothing was identified did not give rise to a need for consideration for similar equipment to be supplied to residents. There was no evidence of the likely existence of an on site condition requiring protective clothing that would also be present for residents.”
R (on the application of Burkett) v Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council Queen’s Bench Division (Newman J) 15 May 2003.
References: PLS News 15/5/03
