If engaged to support or to oppose a proposal for an out-of-town or edge-of-centre superstore, you will find, at the very least, a useful background read in R v South Holland District Council, ex parte Lincoln Co-operative Society Ltd [2000] EGCS 133.
The main lesson to be drawn from that case is that a council, when faced with an application relating to an out-of-centre site, cannot normally allow the applicant to buy himself out of the PPG 6 sequential test – in that case, by agreeing to make a payment of £100,000 towards various town-centre improvements.
In theory, a council could allow such an application if they had reasonable grounds for believing that the payment would redress the harm that the development would otherwise cause to town-centre retailers. But query whether this could ever be a realistic scenario. Readers’ views are most welcome.
If engaged to support or to oppose a proposal for an out-of-town or edge-of-centre superstore, you will find, at the very least, a useful background read in R v South Holland District Council, ex parte Lincoln Co-operative Society Ltd [2000] EGCS 133.
The main lesson to be drawn from that case is that a council, when faced with an application relating to an out-of-centre site, cannot normally allow the applicant to buy himself out of the PPG 6 sequential test – in that case, by agreeing to make a payment of £100,000 towards various town-centre improvements.
In theory, a council could allow such an application if they had reasonable grounds for believing that the payment would redress the harm that the development would otherwise cause to town-centre retailers. But query whether this could ever be a realistic scenario. Readers’ views are most welcome.
