A London landowner has failed in a legal bid to stop a plot in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea from being designated as a local green space.
Landowner William Legard had been seeking to overturn the council’s decision to allow a referendum on a neighbourhood plan that contained the proposal which, if adopted, would stop him from building houses and flats on the land.
However, in a ruling handed down at the High Court in London today, planning judge Mr Justice Dove ruled that the council did not make an error in law when it allowed the plan to go to a referendum.
The plot is situated off Nursery Lane, W10, near Latimer Road, between Kensal Green and the Westway.
According to the ruling, the neighbourhood plan that designated the site as local green space had been promoted by local residents association the St Quentin & Woodlands Neighbourhood Forum.
In his ruling, Dove J said that the designation was “controversial” because “the designation of the site as a [Local Green Space] is inconsistent with promotion of residential development.
The council gave permission for the referendum in December 2015, but the case has been held up pending other test cases. As a result, the grounds of claim shifted in the period between filing and hearing.
In a complicated ruling more than 100 pages long, Dove J said that the council hadn’t erred in law.
“Having considered the claimant’s arguments I have not been persuaded that there was any illegality in the decision which the defendant reached,” Dove J wrote. “The claim must therefore be dismissed.”
William Robert Legard v The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Planning Court (Dove J) 12 Jan 2018
