Judge Andrew Gilbart QC has allowed Northacre’s challenge and quashed the decision of a planning inspector to back the council’s refusal of its application to redevelop a former Kensington nursing home.
In May 2003, Northacre purchased Vicarage Gate House in Kensington, London W8, for £7m as part of a joint venture with Bahrain-based First Islamic Bank.
It plans to demolish the five-storey building, which is within the
Northacre also offered either to pay the council £4m to provide affordable accommodation for elderly persons elsewhere or provide 20 affordable housing units on a site elsewhere in the borough.
Following a public inquiry into the scheme, it was refused by the inspector, in October 2005, on the ground, among others, that the loss of accommodation for elderly persons would be harmful to the local community.
After Northacre brought its challenge to that refusal, the secretary of state quashed the inspector’s decision. However, the council took the dispute to the High Court.
After a two-day hearing, Judge Gilbart quashed the inspector’s decision on six of the 14 grounds that Northacre had raised.
The scheme will now go back for a further public inquiry.
Vicarage Gate Ltd v First
David Holgate QC (instructed by Denton Wilde Sapte) appeared for the claimant; Richard Drabble QC (instructed by the legal department of Kensington and Chelsea Royal Borough Cuncil) appeared for the second defendant; the first defendant did not appear and was not represented.
