One of Europe’s foremost photographic studios has successfully blocked plans to turn a Victorian warehouse complex into shops and flats.
In a ruling at the High Court in London today, judge John Howell QC quashed planning permission for the redevelopment of Eagle Wharf in Hoxton because leaseholder Holborn Studios had not been properly consulted.
Eagle Wharf, which is beside Regent’s Canal, was built as an ironworks in the 1840s before becoming an explosives factory in the 1870s.
Since the 1990s most of the complex has been refurbished and used by Holborn Studios for photography and film work. The ruling said that Holborn Studios holds a 15-year lease for most of the site.
According to the ruling, in 2015 developer Executec applied to Hackney Council for permission to demolish much of the site and redevelop it into shops, flats and cafes. Its plans identified studio space that it said was designed specifically to meet Holborn Studios’ requirements.
Holborn Studios objected to the plan during its consultation phase, saying it did not meet its requirements.
In 2016, the developer amended the planning application. “Only the drawings of the existing buildings and the demolition plan remained unchanged,” the judgment said.
It gave the council two letters from other film studios saying the studio plans were fit for purpose. The revised application also contained a certificate stating that Holborn Studios had been notified of the application, the ruling said.
“That was factually false,” the ruling said.
The ruling said that the report on the application written to the council’s planning committee stated that, although Holborn Studios had raised concerns, “the applicant has provided adequate evidence that that the new floorspace is specifically tailored to the creative industries”.
The studio’s lawyers said they had not been notified about the revised application, and found out about it themselves. They say they were not aware until they obtained the report about the assertion that the space was fit for purpose.
Holborn Studios obtained redacted copies of the letters via a freedom of information request and its managing director turned up at the planning sub-committee meeting in July 2016 where he “was able to complain that, given the extent of the changes made to the application, there should have been re-consultation”.
Planning permission was granted in November 2016.
Holborn Studios took legal action to have the decision reviewed and in a hearing last month its barrister, Richard Harwood QC, contended that, “unfairly and unreasonably, the council had failed to consult Holborn Studios and the public about the amendments proposed in May 2016 given the substantial alterations to the May 2015 application which they involved,” today’s ruling said.
At the hearing the council argued, the ruling said, that there was no requirement for a re-consultation, experienced planning officers took the decision, and both the public and the studios had already been given an opportunity to object, so therefore was not prejudiced by the lack of a second consultation.
The council’s legal team also said that studio space was not a critical issue in the application.
However, in his ruling today, Deputy High Court Judge John Howell QC backed the studio.
“In my judgment, the question is whether [the studio was] unfairly deprived of the opportunity of making any representations it might have wanted to make on the application as amended,” he said.
“In my judgment, Holborn Studios was deprived of such an opportunity; the new basement plan was directly relevant to their interests and something they might plainly have wanted to make representations about.”
Holborn Studios v London Borough of Hackney and others
Planning Court (John Howell QC) 10 November 2017
