Barker Mill Estates, a major landowner in Hampshire, has failed to persuade a judge to quash a local development plan.
The owners of Adanac Park, Nursling, had claimed that Test Valley Borough Council’s development plan, introduced earlier this year, was flawed and should be rejected because it failed to meet the housing and employment planning needs for the area which it had itself identified when formulating the plan.
Barker Mill branded the Revised Test Valley Local Plan (RTVLP) plan “irrational”, but Holgate J dismissed its case.
Among his reasons for doing so, he said: “I can see no legal basis for suggesting that the plan’s policies on providing for development needs, whether for B8 or for employment uses more generally, is irrational or flawed by some public law error.”
Barker Mill also challenged the decision of an inspector to refuse it outline planning permission to develop two sites at Adanac Park.
The local plan had allocated the land to be used as a strategic employment site for office, research and manufacturing. Barker Mills want to develop the land for storage and distribution, and general industry uses.
They alleged the planning inspector erred in law in refusing permission, but the judge ruled that there was no legal merit in their claim.
Trustees of the Barker Mills Estate v Secretary of State for Communites and Local Government Planning Court (Holgate J) 25 November 2016
