Helicopter charter company Halo Aviation’s plans to build a heliport near the centre of Plymouth have survived a High Court challenge from neighbouring fuel storage companies worried about safety.
The companies, Valero Logistics and Greenenergy Terminals, store millions of litres of highly flammable distilled fuel and are worried that a helicopter crash on the site could lead to a major explosion.
Halo, which operates charter flights from bases around London, in the Midlands and on the Channel Islands, has been given planning permission by Plymouth City Council to build Plymouth City Heliport at a site in the Cattedown area of the city, 1.5km from the centre.
The company expects two or three landings at the heliport every week.
But at a hearing in May, lawyers for Valero and Greenenergy told High Court judge Mrs Justice Thornton that Plymouth City Council’s decision to give Halo Aviation planning permission to build was irrational and that the council didn’t property consider the dangers. They asked her to quash the planning permission for the project.
Greenergy’s depot is 100m from the proposed heliport. It has 14 main fuel storage tanks with a capacity for 54m litres of distilled fuel. Valero’s depot is 600m from the site. Its fuel storage depot has capacity of 54m litres of distilled fuel. They get their fuel from tankers that berth at Cattedown Wharf, 400m away and connect to overground pipes that take the fuel to storage.
The fuel and its vapours, according to the ruling, are highly flammable. The depots are regulated under the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations.
In a ruling handed down today, Mrs Justice Thornton rejected the case brought by the fuel companies and said the planning permission could stand.
To succeed in their case the claimants “must establish a public law error on the part of the decision-maker”, she said. “A legal challenge is not an opportunity for a review of the planning merits.”
In this case she found there was no planning error. She said there is strong evidence the planning officer and planning committee involved in the decision took reasonable steps to understand the risks of the development. Committee members actively discussed the risks of a helicopter crash during their meeting.
The decision, she said, wasn’t irrational.
“It is well established that the threshold for an irrationality challenge is high. The committee considered the risks, how they might be mitigated and weighed these against the benefits of the proposed development… I am satisfied the defendant reached a conclusion that lies well within the band of reasonable responses.”
“The claim for judicial review is dismissed,” she said.
(1) Valero Logistics UK Limited (2) Greenergy Terminals Limited v Plymouth City Council and (1) Halo Aviation Limited (2) Louis Dulling
Planing Court (Thornton J) 30 June 2021
Mr Philip Coppel QC and Ms Olivia Davies (instructed by Burges Salmon LLP) for the Claimant
Mr Wayne Beglan and Mr Sam Fowles (instructed by Plymouth City Council) for the Defendant
